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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN
9
“We talk a lot about … funds we want to
spend, whether it’s transportation dollars for
bike lanes or street cars,” she said. “But in
the end, until every kid can walk to school
safely and particularly in a city like Portland
that prides itself on being a livable, walkable
city, we’re not the city we think we are.”
Being a new mom has greatly influenced
Fagan’s foray into state politics, and she says
running for office while pregnant wasn’t
nearly as daunting as it sounds.
The combination of walking in the heat to
canvass and taking a dip in the East Portland
Community Center pool afterward was per-
fect.
She was surprised by people such as the
65-year-old man she canvassed who told her,
“Every politician claims to care about Ore-
gon’s future, but I have never had someone
carry it up my stairs in her belly. You’ve got
my vote!”
“We don’t have to see family and service as
separate silos,” Fagan said. “I couldn’t do this
without Ater Wynne holding
my job, and my husband,
Richard. He is a 100 percent,
hands-on parent who shares
equally in the parenting re-
sponsibilities and home re-
sponsibilities. That is what
works for our family, and
that’s the only way it would
work.”
Alton is affectionately re-
ferred to as “The Capitol Ba-
by,” making regular appear-
ances with his mom and at-
tending day care five min-
utes away from the Capitol
several days a week.
“We try to find the same
work and life balance all
families throughout Oregon,
throughout my district, are
trying to balance,” Fagan
said.
Her father was the ‘rock’
Oregon State Day at the Capitol was April
17, a day she was visiting with pharmacy stu-
dents. Fagan joked that her dad taught her to
be two things: a Republican and an Oregon
State fan.
“I can’t let him be zero for two,” the Demo-
cratic legislator said, revealing her status as
a lifelong Beaver believer.
It’s been seven years since Fagan’s dad,
John Frank Fagan Sr., died suddenly from
heart failure, and he’s still her greatest
source of inspiration.
When Fagan was a child, her mother was
troubled with drug addiction and homeless-
ness and her dad was a single parent — her
best friend and the rock in her life.
Fagan:
Pregnancy in uenced foray into politics
■
From previous page
Above, a freshman Democrat legislator, Fagan serves on three committees:
the Education, Business and Labor committees, and is vice chairwoman of
Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee.
Left, growing up in rural Dufur, Fagan was raised by her dad, John Fagan, and
older brothers. Though he struggled to make ends meet as a single dad, John
was a driving force in Fagan’s life. “He was my world,” Fagan says. John died
in 2006, but continues to be Fagan’s biggest inspiration.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
See FAGAN / next page
“I love
Oregon. I
was born
and raised
here. It is
my home
and the
only place I
want to live
for the rest
of my life.”
— Rep. Shemia
Fagan