Exploring a possible 2028 run · Oregon’s 4th District

Josh Marx Dyer

WorkingPeopleFirst.

Working families are doing everything right and still falling behind. Josh Marx Dyer, a Navy submarine veteran with hands-on conservation experience in Mexico, scientist, and working father, is listening across Oregon’s 4th and exploring whether a possible 2028 candidacy can put ordinary people ahead of corporate power.

VeteranConservationScientistWorking father
Josh Marx Dyer, a Navy submarine veteran and scientist in Oregon.
Josh Marx DyerService · Stewardship · Science · Solidarity

The starting point

The basics of life should not be luxuries.

Real freedom requires a foundation. In the wealthiest nation in human history, no person should be denied the necessities required to live with dignity simply because they are poor, sick, disabled, old, displaced, or going through a hard season.

Government should guarantee the floor (not unlimited consumption), then build the public systems, skilled workforce, and infrastructure needed to make those guarantees real.

Women’s autonomy & safety

A woman’s body and future belong to her.

Women must have the legal authority to make decisions about their own bodies, reproductive healthcare, families, and futures. That includes access to abortion, contraception, miscarriage care, IVF, and other private medical care without political coercion.

Sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, trafficking, reproductive coercion, and abuse must be treated as serious offenses. Survivors deserve safety, medical care, evidence preservation, legal support, and thorough investigation. When guilt is proven through due process, offenders should face the full penalties available under law, including the highest penalties authorized for the most serious offenses.

A woman’s autonomy and safety should not depend on her ZIP code. The developing federal agenda supports a strong national floor of protection within constitutional authority.

What this means in everyday life

Start with the things people have to live with every day.

The full Honor Agenda is detailed. These six areas are a simpler way to see how the developing policies connect to everyday life.

01

Paychecks & work

Wages, schedules, leave, unions, worker ownership, and whether a full-time job provides enough stability to build a life.

Honor Our Workers →
02

Housing & bills

More homes, realistic first-home pathways, reliable utilities, and limits on large-scale corporate accumulation of housing.

Honor Our Homes & Communities →
03

Healthcare

Medical, dental, vision, mental-health, prescription, rural, disability, and long-term care without financial ruin.

Honor Our Health →
04

Children & education

Safe schools, universal meals, strong teachers and support staff, childcare, trades, college, and hands-on learning.

Honor Our Children →
05

Food, water & community

Healthy soil, reliable water, local farms and businesses, resilient forests, public infrastructure, and community control where practical.

Honor Our Land & Water →
06

Service, security & accountable government

Care for veterans and military families, a defense-first military posture, responsible public spending, voting rights, ethics, and public accountability.

Honor Our Service →

The name I carry · Family roots

We inherit a name. We choose what it stands for.

My name is Joshua Marx Dyer. My grandfather, Harold Marx Dyer, went by Marx. He and my grandmother, Deanna Walton Dyer, raised me in Hobbs, New Mexico.

Marx is a name passed down through generations of my family. My political beliefs are my own, and the reasons an earlier ancestor first chose the name remain unverified. What my grandparents taught me about work, responsibility, and community is the legacy I carry forward.

A governing standard

Honor is a promise we keep.

Honor cannot stop at ceremonies or applause. It must be visible in what government protects, what it builds, what it funds, and whose dignity it refuses to sacrifice.

01

Safe · Housed · Fed · Taught · Empowered

Honor Our Children

Every child deserves more than a chance to survive childhood. Every child should be safe, housed, fed, educated, and given a real opportunity to discover what they can become.

Read the commitment
02

Wages · Unions · Ownership

Honor Our Workers

A full-time job should provide a life worth living. Workers deserve bargaining power, time with their families, safe workplaces, and a real share of the wealth their work creates.

Read the commitment
03

Veterans · First responders · Public service

Honor Our Service

Service is a promise between a person and the country or community they serve. That promise cannot end when a uniform comes off, a disaster ends, or a public-service assignment is complete.

Read the commitment
04

Care without fear or debt

Honor Our Health

Healthcare is a human right. Losing a job, getting sick, aging, becoming disabled, or living in a rural community should never mean losing access to care.

Read the commitment
05

Homes · Utilities · Local ownership

Honor Our Homes & Communities

A home should be a place to live, not a financial weapon. Essential infrastructure should serve the public, and communities should have the power to keep homes, businesses, land, and opportunity locally rooted.

Read the commitment
06

Women’s autonomy · Equal rights · Safety · Due process

Honor Our Freedom & Justice

Women’s bodily autonomy and safety are explicit commitments: protect reproductive freedom and equal citizenship, support survivors, and hold people convicted of sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, trafficking, reproductive coercion, and abuse fully accountable under law.

Read the commitment
07

Voting · Ethics · Accountability

Honor Our Democracy

Political equality is impossible when wealth buys access, elected officials trade on public information, districts are engineered for politicians, and public institutions investigate themselves.

Read the commitment
08

Water · Land · Tribes · Climate

Honor Our Land & Water

Water is life. Healthy forests, farms, fisheries, watersheds, air, soil, and oceans are not luxuries; they are the living infrastructure every community and economy depend upon.

Read the commitment
09

Science · Technology · Infrastructure

Honor Our Future

America should build the future instead of managing decline. Science and technology should expand human freedom, shared prosperity, resilience, and knowledge, not create new private empires.

Read the commitment
Josh Marx Dyer in protective beekeeping gear during pollinator conservation work in Mexico.
Conservation work in Mexico

Service · Stewardship · Science · Family

I didn’t come up through a political machine.

My background spans working-class jobs, caregiving, U.S. Navy submarine service, more than two years of conservation work in Mexico, Oregon State University, scientific research, and raising three children.

U.S. NavySubmarine veteran
Mexico conservationDuring the pandemic · Chiapas
Oregon StateB.S. in Botany
FamilyWorking father of three near Eugene

Oregon’s 4th Congressional District

From the valley to the coast, we rise together.

The district includes college towns, coastal communities, farms, forests, tribal nations, ports, small businesses, working families, retirees, veterans, and rural communities. Representation should begin by showing up and listening.

Volunteer interest

Help build the organizing network.

Interested in helping with a possible 2028 congressional campaign? Tell us where you are and how you would like to help. Canvassing and door-to-door listening are the first options, with phone and text outreach, events, digital work, research, and local organizing also available.

01

Canvass

Indicate interest in door knocking and face-to-face community listening.

02

Organize

Help coordinate local volunteers, events, and neighborhood or county teams.

03

Support

Help with phones, texts, digital content, research, data, or logistics.

Field Notes

Go deeper than a social post.

Longer-form background, sourced explainers, district guides, and notes on what I’m learning.

A conversation built with you

Help shape what comes next.

This is a developing agenda, not a finished manifesto. Every proposal should be tested against evidence, cost, constitutional authority, unintended consequences, and the lived experience of people across Oregon’s 4th.