Two Corvallis School Board members running for Democratic nod in House District 16

Sami Al-Abdrabbuh and Sarah Finger McDonald, Democratic candidates in the state House District 16 primary. (Provided)

Two Corvallis School Board members are running for the Democratic nomination in House District 16, and the winner will replace a legislator who rose through the ranks to become House speaker.

The Corvallis-area district’s race is open because outgoing Democratic Rep. Dan Rayfield is running for attorney general after nearly 10 years in the seat, the last two as House speaker. 

With no Republicans in the race, the winner of the Democratic primary – either Sami Al-Abdrabbuh or Sarah Finger McDonald – will represent the district in Salem. It encompasses Corvallis, where Oregon State University is located, and includes surrounding areas, primarily to the north and east to the edge of Albany. 

Rayfield, who isn’t endorsing anyone in the race, won in 2022 with 75% of the vote against Republican Keith Lembke. The district has about three times as many registered Democratic voters than registered Republicans: Forty-six percent of the district’s registered voters are Democrats, while 15% are Republicans. The remaining voters are unaffiliated or registered to third parties.

Both candidates seeking to replace Rayfield have doctoral degrees and experience with education policy. But they differ in their backgrounds and experiences in advocacy on issues like gun violence prevention and school finance. 

Here’s a look at the candidates:

Sami Al-Abdrabbuh

Sami Al-Abdrabbuh, who was born in the U.S., comes from an international family. His mother, who’s from Syria, lives in Canada and his father, who is half Syrian and half Arabian, lives in Saudi Arabia. 

Al-Abdrabbuh said his background is a reminder that all Oregonians have different experiences and stories that can guide lawmakers. 

“Oregon thrives when we understand where everybody is coming from, what they stand for, and how we can share ideas,” he said. “One of the things that I learned from a very young age is that we thrive when we listen to each other.” 

Name: Sami Al-Abdrabbuh

Party: Democratic

Age: 37

Residence: Corvallis

Education: Doctoral degree in industrial engineering, Oregon State University, 2020; master’s degree in industrial engineering, Oregon State University, 2015; bachelor’s degree in engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals in Saudi Arabia, 2010.

Current occupation: Industrial engineer/project manager; instructor at Oregon State University

Prior elected experience: Member of Corvallis School Board since 2017; current president of Oregon School Boards Association 

Fundraising: $55,652 as of April 25.

Cash on hand: $12,782 as of April 25.

Al-Abdrabbuh said he had a deep interest in education and that his work on the school board and as president of the Oregon School Boards Association has given him a firsthand experience in the budget process and how it affects issues like education, health and affordable housing. 

He said he would prioritize the state’s lack of affordable housing and work on solutions to address homelessness.

“No matter where your circumstances are, you deserve a roof over your head,” Al-Abdrabbuh said. 

He’s also concerned about workforce shortages, especially in health care, behavioral health and education. Al-Abdrabbuh said he wants to see the state develop a program to provide mortgage assistance or help with rent to workers who enter high-demand fields. Al-Abdrabbuh said details would have to be worked out but that the state could establish partnerships with businesses and create tax incentives to help companies hire needed professionals.

Al-Abdrabbuh said he has experience helping to secure funds. As a Corvallis School Board member, he advocated for passing a $200 million bond initiative to help schools make improvements to buildings to guard against earthquake damages.

As president of the Oregon School Boards Association, he said he’s worked with other school districts to help them pass bonds for facilities.

He said the state should reconsider the education funding formula for public schools to increase funding to help  student achievement in areas in which many students are weak, like literacy. 

“It’s time for our Legislature to re-examine how we fund our schools,” he said. “That will be a laser focus of attention for myself.”

He said his mix of public service and private sector engineering experience is good preparation for service as a legislator. For example, he has worked for General Electric as an engineer for safety monitoring systems in the water and energy industries.

Engineers need to prepare for the worst and consider the long-term impacts of their projects for years and decades ahead, he said. Similarly, lawmakers need to consider how their work will impact constituents in the long-term, he said. 

He’s also overseen contracts with large companies like Hewlett Packard, which has a campus in Corvallis, that install manufacturing equipment and managed multi-million dollar projects as well as worked on budgets for the school board and served as the school board representative when the district bargained with the teachers union during contract negotiations.

“When you’re a legislator, you’ve got to have a balance and understanding of the private sector, public sector, education, supervising employees, working with multifunctional teams, all of these things are really important attributes,” he said. “I feel privileged to have them.”

Al-Abdrabbuh’s supporters include the Oregon Sierra Club, Corvallis Professional Firefighters, Ironworkers Local 29 and other labor groups for steelworkers and farm workers. 

Sarah Finger McDonald

McDonald said she got her start in Oregon politics and activism after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and Oregon’s Clackamas Town Center shooting in which three people, including the shooter, died. Both unfolded three days apart in December 2012.  

Her son’s persistent questions about the shootings spurred her to get involved, McDonald said.

“He kept asking me ‘Why, why?’” McDonald said. “I realized that all I could really tell him was that I would work hard to make things better.”

Name: Sarah Finger McDonald

Party: Democratic

Age: 52

Residence: Corvallis

Education: Doctoral degree in horticulture, Oregon State University, 2007, master’s degree in horticulture, Virginia Tech, 2000, , Bachelor’s degree in biology, University of Notre Dame, 1994. 

Current occupation: Academic advisor, Oregon State University

Prior elected experience: Member of the Corvallis School Board since 2017

Family status: Married with two children

Fundraising: $42,929 as of April 25. 

Cash on hand: $22,180 as of April 25.

McDonald and other mothers founded an Oregon chapter of Moms Demand Action, a national organization that launched to prevent gun violence after Sandy Hook. But at a certain point, McDonald said, she realized activism alone isn’t enough: Good people need to run for office to get results, she said.

“I’m not a traditional candidate who’s run for office a lot,” she said. “I’m an activist who’s worked for 11 years to keep our communities safe and to support education.”

To prevent gun violence, McDonald said municipalities need to have funding and support to implement Measure 114, a measure passed by voters in 2022 that would require permits and a safety training to purchase firearms. The measure is tied up in the courts, but McDonald hopes it’s implemented. 

“I want to make sure that municipalities have the support and the capability to carry out this expanded background checks and make sure that the training and permitting that’s required in that measure actually happens,” she said. 

Other issues are on her radar, too.

McDonald, a Corvallis school board member, considers education a priority. She is an adviser at Oregon State University for non-traditional students, such as older adults returning to school and sees their struggles to balance jobs, families and tuition bills. 

“We need to make sure our students are supported pre-K through whatever educational path they take after high school, whether that be training for a trade and apprenticeship or community college or a four year college,” McDonald said. 

McDonald said she’s a firm believer in reproductive rights and expanding them rather than taking them away, as other states have done after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“I’m a mom with a daughter who has fewer rights than I had when I was her age,” McDonald said.

McDonald considers health care a priority. She has navigated the health care system during a crisis, battling colon cancer during the pandemic and said the state needs to bolster access to care. She supports a single payer system, like Medicare, that would prevent people from facing a financial crisis to get treatment. 

“We’re paying for a lot in our health care system that doesn’t directly take care of people,” McDonald said. 

She was diagnosed the first time in February 2021. The cancer returned in November 2022 – caught early with a blood test – and McDonald had a second round of treatments in January. McDonald said she waited to make her decision to run until tests showed she was cancer free and healthy. During both bouts of cancer, McDonald had 20 rounds of chemotherapy and continued to attend most school board meetings except for when she was in the hospital for surgery. 

“I am tough as nails,” McDonald said. “I do not back down in the face of adversity, and I will work hard to make sure that we’re protecting our progressive values.”

McDonald’s supporters include the Oregon Nurses Association, the American Federation of Teachers-Oregon and Oregon Sierra Club.

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