Q & A With Sen. Kayse Jama, New Oregon Senate Majority Leader

Kayse Jama was elected last week as Oregon Senate majority leader, making him the first African American Muslim to hold the office. 

Jama was first appointed to the Senate in 2021 to fill a vacancy, and kept the position after a successful election in 2022. By then he had nearly 20 years as a nonprofit organizer under his belt: He had founded Unite Oregon to aid and empower marginalized populations. His position representing East Portland and chairing the Senate Interim Committee on Housing and Development was especially poignant: after fleeing his native Somalia, he was able to purchase his own home in East Portland.

It is sure to be an interesting session, with Oregon on the verge of achieving a Democratic supermajority in the legislature. 

The Skanner spoke with Sen. Jama about his priorities heading into the next session. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

The Skanner: What will be your main legislative focus heading into this session?

Sen. Jama: The first goal I really have for myself is supporting the caucus and the work that they are doing for their constituencies and all Oregonians, regardless of where they’re located in Oregon. Goal two, maintaining a strong working relationship with our Republican colleagues in the Senate and both the caucuses, the House and the governor’s office.

The agenda for 2025 really is making sure we’re creating a growing and fair, affordable economy that works for everyone in Oregon, regardless of where they live in the state. The economy we have right now doesn’t work for everybody. 

The other issue which I’ve tried to address, how do we continue to build affordable housing and build more units for housing production? Really continuing the work we’ve done for the last few years. 

And of course, the homelessness issue is also really challenging and we’ll continue to build on work we’ve done, and also, keeping safe and providing fair drug prices. Those are real issues that Oregonians are facing, and so we’ll continue to work on that issue that we’ve been working on for the last few years.

The biggest focus of this current session will also be maintaining safe, sustainable transportation systems, and then, of course, climate change will be an issue we’re trying to address. And then of course, holding agencies accountable and balancing the budget for 2025 and making sure we spend tax dollars wisely. 

The Skanner: What do you feel is working in housing and development in Oregon, and what would you like the focus to be going forward?

Sen. Jama: Since I entered the Senate in 2021, Oregon invested almost $4.2 billion in housing, which is a lot of money, and we want to make sure that money is being spent wisely. Having said that, our office has four key strategies: Keeping Oregonians housed, which really means expanding rental assistance programs, strengthening protections for vulnerable populations. We invested some resources and policies in those areas for the last few years that I have been the housing chair.

The second goal is moving people from off the streets faster, and we did that work with the shelter systems – investing in services, addressing the intersectionality with the drug crisis. 

Really trying to maintain and make sure Oregonians, while building more affordable housing units, we can move people in the meantime from the streets and also provide them shelter. I think some of those strategies are working, although the results are not enough. 

The third goal is expanding home ownership programs.

I’m a true believer that all Oregonians who want to own their homes have the opportunity to own.

What that means is funding down payment assistance programs and funding IDA programs. So we’ve spent some dollars there, and are changing policies around that area. I think it’s an opportunity for Oregonians to have access to home ownership. 

The last strategy where we spent money is, how do we increase housing production? That’s strategy number four, and we’ll spend a lot of resources there as well in 2025 and beyond. We passed Senate Bill 1537, which is the bill that also changed the land-use system in Oregon.

There was a lot of work we have done – those areas are all areas that our offices have been working on. These resources will be pipelines, and we want to make sure that we really keep investing and keep building on our success, while addressing some of the challenges we are seeing in our community. 

The Skanner: After the reelection of Trump, there’s a sense that protection has to happen at the state level and within more local governments. As Senate majority leader, do you think there will be a focus on strengthening protections for Oregonians who might feel under attack – those who are concerned about, for example, immigrant rights and reproductive health access?

Sen. Jama: Oregonians are fair-minded people. They want to make sure that their values are being protected, under Trump’s assault on our civil liberties. I think really making sure we protect Oregonian’s freedom against discrimination and also reproductive freedom, those are the core values that Oregonians really hold deeply. 

Our goal is making sure we protect Oregonians from the Trump administration’s attack on those freedom and values that we hold dearly.

What that’s going to look like remains to be seen, and I think we can expect a lot of chaos from the Trump administration, but we are ready for it. I think that’s really the key message that I am starting to issue: Making sure that whether you’re an immigrant or refugee, whether you’re a person of color, BIPOC community member, whether you’re someone who cares about reproductive health – I think all of thoseissues are going to be things that we’ve got to make sure that we protect, for all Oregonians, regardless of where they live in the state.

Safety and freedom and protecting rural Oregonians really will be the key plurality, regardless of what issues might come up along the way. There’s a lot of fear and a lot of challenges (ahead).

The Skanner: What are your thoughts on the fact that Oregon voters just rejected statewide rank-choice voting?

Sen. Jama: Whether it succeeded or failed, this ballot measure gave Oregonians the opportunity to have a real conversation about how we can make our democracy better reflect our values. I see and hear the concerns that led voters to reject the rank-choice voting idea, and I hope we will continue to work together as a state to build a more perfect union through our elections system.

The Skanner: What excites you about serving as Senate majority leader?

Sen. Jama: I have 20 years experience of managing a nonprofit, I’m a collaborative person, and I’m hoping to build a caucus that works across the issues, across the aisle. And working with our colleagues in a very bipartisan manner, and just making sure that we build an Oregon that works for all Oregonians, regardless of their background. That’s really what excites me – the opportunity to do that. 

I’ve been at the job a week so far, so there’s a lot going on. My goal is to reach across the aisle and really collaborate and build relationships with our colleagues. But really the issue is that Oregonians’ issues that they care deeply about, whether that’s freedom, fairness, economic justice that works for everybody – it’s not about partisan issues, they’re issues that all Oregonians care about, regardless of their party affiliation, in urban and rural areas. 

I’m intending to collaborate and work together with my Republican colleagues, with the help of, of course, my colleagues in the Senate. 

The Skanner: How do you think your background as a Muslim and as a refugee might inform your leadership, and your legislative focus?

Sen. Jama: I think both my personal experience and my professional experience informs my work. I think the caucus has some of the most diverse leadership this year and in recent memory, so that really excites me a lot and really shows that Oregon is ready for diverse leadership. In a lot of ways I’m just an example of that, and really, it also creates hope and opportunity and excitement for all people who are from different backgrounds and sometimes feel that they aren’t represented in the leadership of Oregon, and so I’ve been getting a lot of messages from across the country – there’s excitement around my role as new majority leader. But I think the most important thing is to make sure we do the work that Oregonians ask us to do. That’s what the number one priority is for me.