by Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle
December 10, 2025
Three Democrats are running for an open state House seat that is among the most competitive and unpredictable in Oregon.
Teachers Nick Walden Poublon and David Osborn and Hank Sanders, a legislative aide for his mother, Portland Democratic state Sen. Lisa Reynolds, have all filed to run in the Democratic primary for the Gorge-based 52nd House District. All three say they’re prioritizing the rising costs of living, especially housing and property insurance, health care and education.
The incumbent Republican — state Rep. Jeff Helfrich of Hood River — has not filed to run for the seat again, but instead to run for the state Senate seat being vacated by state Sen. Christine Drazan, who is running for governor.
Helfrich could change his mind and seek re-election for the House seat at any point before March 3rd, however, which is the filing deadline for incumbents. One candidate has filed to run in the Republican primary so far: Robert Fleming, a residential property manager from Gresham with no other experience in public office.
The 52nd House District, running along the Columbia River Gorge from Troutdale to The Dalles, is one of the last districts in the state that is truly anyone’s game. It has more registered Democrats than Republicans — 16,000 Democrats to 13,200 Republicans — but the nearly 19,400 nonaffiliated voters determine the outcome of most races.
Clackamas, Hood River and Multnomah county commissioners first appointed Helfrich to serve the remainder of former Republican state Rep. Mark Johnson’s term when he resigned. But when Helfrich ran for the seat in 2018 and again in 2020, Democrat Anna Williams defeated him both times. In 2022, after redistricting changed the district’s boundaries, Williams retired and Helfrich was able to win the seat back.
Walden Poublon received the Democratic nomination in 2024 and narrowly lost to Helfrich.
Nick Walden Poublon
Walden Poublon, 45, lives in Sandy and works as a substitute teacher in the Gresham-Barlow and Corbett school districts.
He doesn’t have prior elected experience but previously worked as a legislative aide for former Democratic state Rep. Lori Kuechler, a Sandy nonprofit consultant appointed to represent the district for a few months in 2022.
He also sits on the board of Health Care for All Oregon and is the chair of the state Democratic Party’s health care caucus. He is a graduate of Portland State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history.
In a text he told the Capital Chronicle his priorities if elected include curbing the rising cost of living, especially health care, housing and education.
“Families across District 52 are being squeezed. Housing costs keep climbing. Health care premiums and out-of-pocket costs are set to jump sharply next year under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. Our schools, from Hood River to The Dalles to rural Clackamas and Multnomah counties, feel the strain as classrooms become more expensive to staff and run,” he said. “These issues are connected. Together, they shape whether families can afford to stay in the communities they love.”
Among his policy proposals are workforce housing investments to make it more affordable for teachers, healthcare workers and first responders to live near where they work. He also proposes expanding state grants to help Oregonians upgrade and retrofit their homes to be wildfire resistant and to lower property insurance premiums.
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David Osborn
Osborn, 43, lives in Corbett. He teaches general education classes and sociology as an adjunct professor at Portland State University and Mount Hood Community College, owns Wapato Valley Farm in Corbett and runs Wapato Valley Consulting.
Voters elected him to the Corbett School Board earlier this year.
Osborn said his top issue is a lack of affordable housing, as well as uncertainty over funding caused by the GOP tax and spending cut megalaw passed by congressional Republicans over the summer that is expected to take a $63 million bite out of Oregon’s general fund revenue during the next two-year budget cycle that ends in June 2027.
“I think that we are at a really kind of critical juncture in Oregon because of the federal cuts in the way that the federal government is, at least right now, essentially starting to abandon the states and state of Oregon,” Osborn said. “This is the moment to actually make sure that we are supporting people in being able to have affordable housing, to be able to afford childcare and attend preschool, to be able to have good K-12 education, be able to have tuition that they can afford for higher education and for all the things that are important to folks.”
Osborn is a graduate of Roseburg High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology, political science and psychology from the University of Oregon, a master’s degree in political economy from the London School of Economics and a PhD in sociology from Portland State University.
Hank Sanders
Sanders, 25, lives in Hood River. He’s a former journalist and campaign director and is currently a legislative aide to his mother, Reynolds, in the Oregon Senate.
Sanders grew up in rural Gaston, about 30 miles west of Portland, and graduated from Lincoln High School in Portland. He returned to Oregon this spring from New York City to work as political campaign director for Oregon’s U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, a Democrat representing the 3rd Congressional District, following a year-long New York Times reporting fellowship.
Sanders also worked for a year as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune, and interned at ABC News and Willamette Week, where he created the Willamette Week Podcast. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from the University of Chicago in 2023.
Although Sanders has lived in the district for less than a year, he said he wants to spend the rest of his life there. The move also brought to the fore a very real issue he’d tackle as a legislator if elected: housing availability and affordability.
Sanders said he had to stay in short-term rentals before he could find an affordable and available long-term lease in Hood River.
“I want to make it so that people my age can be out here and afford to live out here,” he said.
Sanders has shared several policy proposals he would bring to the state Legislature, including tax credits for child care employees to help solve workforce issues and child care deserts. Other proposals include creating a state-run home hardening task force meant to help Oregonians upgrade and retrofit homes to withstand wildfire and to lower insurance premiums, and a state agency to help Oregonians file Medicaid paperwork.
New paperwork and eligibility requirements imposed by Congress this summer are meant to reduce the number of people using the program that helps low-income Americans afford healthcare. Such an office to help with the new bureaucratic hurdles would help more people keep their coverage, Sanders said.
“This office, this seat, has the ability to be incredibly important over the next decade because of the challenges that this community that I love and want to spend the rest of my life in faces,” Sanders said. “If we can’t bring more people out here to live and work, then we are going to kind of remain what we are, which is great, but also not a place that can be for everybody.
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