About Dr. Barbara Kahl

A fresh voice for Oregon's 1st District.

Dr. Barbara Kahl is running for Congress because she believes Oregon's 1st District needs a representative who actually hears the people who live here.

For years, families across Northwest Oregon have watched the same problems get worse. Costs keep going up. Schools are struggling. Small businesses are carrying heavier burdens. Farms, forests, fisheries, and working lands are under pressure. Many people are worried about public safety, taxes, and a federal government that feels farther away from regular life every year.

Dr. Kahl believes the people of this district deserve better than polished speeches and party talking points. They deserve someone who understands what life looks like outside of Washington, D.C.

Oregon's 1st Congressional District is not one single community with one single set of concerns. It includes the high tech economy and growing neighborhoods of Washington County, the working waterfronts and fisheries of Clatsop and Tillamook counties, the farms, forests, and rural communities of Columbia County, and families in Multnomah County who are trying to keep up with rising costs and changing neighborhoods.

These communities are different, and they deserve to be heard that way.

Dr. Kahl understands that Oregon's strength comes from the people who live and work here. It comes from families, farmers, fishermen, veterans, teachers, tradesmen, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and volunteers who keep showing up even when government makes life harder than it needs to be.

Dr. Kahl studied animal science and chemistry at Oregon State University before becoming a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. That training shaped how she looks at problems. She believes in looking at the facts, asking the right questions, finding the root cause, and then doing something useful about it.

Before her veterinary career, Dr. Kahl also gained experience in Oregon's technology economy, including work connected to Intel. That experience gave her a practical understanding of budgets, operations, purchasing, workforce needs, and what it takes for businesses and workers to succeed in a competitive economy.

As a veterinarian, Dr. Kahl has spent her career serving people and animals directly. Veterinary medicine is not theoretical work. It requires judgment, compassion, discipline, and accountability. People depend on you. Animals depend on you. Farmers, families, and communities depend on you.

Suzanne Bonamici has represented Oregon's 1st District since 2012. During that time, many people in the district have watched their concerns go unanswered. Families are paying more for nearly everything. Parents are frustrated with education results. Small businesses are dealing with more pressure. Rural and coastal communities often feel overlooked.

Dr. Kahl believes representation should mean more than holding office. It should mean listening to the district, even when the people are saying things politicians do not want to hear.

She is running to bring local common sense back to Congress. That means protecting taxpayers from wasteful spending, supporting parents who want better results from schools, standing with veterans, defending constitutional freedoms, and supporting small businesses, reliable energy, responsible forest management, working farms, fisheries, ports, and the communities that depend on them.

It also means remembering that environmental stewardship and economic survival should not be enemies. In Northwest Oregon, people care deeply about the land, the water, the animals, and the future. But they also need jobs, affordable living, safe communities, and a government that does not regulate them into the ground.

Dr. Kahl is not running to become another career politician. She is running because she believes the district needs a different kind of voice. One shaped by real work, real responsibility, and real life.

For Washington County, that means leadership that understands families, technology, education, affordability, and economic opportunity.

For Columbia County, it means a representative who respects rural communities, working lands, and the people who feel ignored by Portland centered politics.

For Clatsop and Tillamook counties, it means standing up for coastal jobs, fisheries, ports, tourism, farms, and small businesses that are being squeezed from every direction.

For the Multnomah County communities in the district, it means taking concerns about cost of living, safety, taxes, and accountability seriously.