Frequently Asked Questions about Sarah and the Campaign

Who is Sarah Iannarone?

Sarah Iannarone is the right woman for the job of leading this city. She’s a small-business founder, and a PSU-educated expert in what makes a city great. Her historic campaign is the first to qualify for the City’s Open and Accountable Elections program designed to get corrupt money out of politics, and she’s leading a campaign with the largest number of individual donors and volunteers for any Mayoral campaign in Portland history. We encourage you to talk to your community - on social media and at your next Socially Distanced Get Together, about Sarah’s historic run for Portland Mayor. Sarah is happy to answer your questions, so contact us if this page doesn’t give you the answers you’re looking for.

Sure, Ted Wheeler needs to go. But really, what are Sarah’s chances?

Sarah has a clear path to victory if Portland continues to show up like they have in recent months. Sarah is a highly-qualified, whip smart, straight-talking leader. The biggest obstacle to her victory will be if voter apathy outweighs our city’s strong desire for change in this election. Sarah is up against an opponent with deep connections to corporations and wealthy special interests. Sarah has the Open and Accountable Election public campaign financing program, so she doesn’t rely on those corrupting dollars. But we know we can win because #OurPortland has a long history of standing up to business-as-usual and achieving people-powered progress.

How would Sarah deal with protests if she were mayor?

Sarah plans to work with community to make the changes people demand instead of resisting reform at every turn and pretending the protestors will go away on their own. Watch the video to learn more:

How will Sarah deal with the white nationalist and alt-right protests? Who is responsible for protest violence?

Sarah wants to mobilize every asset in the City arsenal to ensure we stop outside agitators from inciting violence in Portland. Sarah stands for equal enforcement of the law and wants to ensure Police respond in equal measure to all demonstrations and all acts of crime and violence.

Sarah also believes that we can not equate violent fascist protesters with Portlanders who demonstrate peacefully for Black Lives Matter.

How will Sarah deal with the rise in gun violence?

Sarah has built a Gun Violence Prevention team with teenagers from the March for Our Lives who have been working on this issue since they were in middle school, who have crafted a plan vetted by community advocates and Elders. Check out some details here:

How will Sarah deal with all the camps of houseless people? What about people who choose to be houseless?

Sarah in her own words: “No one truly chooses to be homeless. The tents pop up because no shelter or housing is available. The answer to this is providing services for homeless people where they are. We waste millions sweeping people from one end of the street to another and back again. Instead of bloated police budgets criminalizing poverty, Sarah will invest in community safety hubs, emergency transitional shelters, tiny house villages, and in the first 100 days launch a strategic plan for housing all Portlanders.”

Sarah on the issues:

COVID & Recovery

Sarah in her own words: “This damn pandemic. The small business I founded had to close, costing my former partner and my daughter their jobs. Tragically, the worst is still to come in terms of infections and economic fallout, which is why we created the Portland Recovery and Resilience Plan as a road map for healing Portland through COVID. Our targeted solutions will serve vulnerable communities to keep people housed, fed, and able to thrive during and after the pandemic. To improve the way we respond to future disasters, we will ensure every member of our community is engaged in this plan.”

Anti-racist Public Safety & Community Well-being

Sarah in her own words: “Portland Police have wasted millions of dollars to collaborate with Federal forces and tear gas Portlanders. We can’t keep throwing good money after bad. Our Portland Rethinking Public Safety plan acts on this moment with a thoughtful reconsideration of how we spend public dollars, and who those investments protect. Portland currently wastes millions on over-policing nonwhite people and harassing the houseless. We must divest from this senseless waste and reinvest in community well-being. To reduce crime, we must reduce poverty. Portland needs a truth and reparation process to address the damage that systemic racism has done to Black, brown and Indigenous Portlanders.”

Housing & Homelessness

Sarah in her own words: “Portland’s current Mayor failed to substantially reverse the course of the housing crisis, and the pandemic threatens to skyrocket houselessness. We have the resources we need to get people into homes. Our Portland Housing for All plan is ready on Day One to protect people living on the edge of losing everything through immediate extension of residential and commercial renter protections. We will target investments in new affordable housing, work with houseless community members instead of harassing them, and pilot a new direct aid program for our most-vulnerable neighbors.”

Climate Action

Sarah in her own words: “Thanks to the voter-approved Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), we have the resources to transition our city toward 100% renewable energy. The current Mayor opposed PCEF on behalf of big business. As your next Mayor I will never stand in the way of grassroots climate action. Our Portland Green New Deal plan is ready to act for climate justice. Targeted investments for communities of color and low-income residents will power our renewable future. My administration will bring Portland individuals and small businesses opportunities to join the regenerative economy, providing family-wage union jobs as we transition out of fossil fuel and other extractive industries.”

Someone on social media said Sarah a violent, window-smashing anarchist Antifa terrorist communist socialist.

Sarah is a progressive, an educator, and she stands opposed to fascism. The media - especially right-wing outlets - love to demonize Sarah because of what she represents: a true challenge to the conservative establishment who is ready for change. Sarah doesn't want America to turn into The Handmaid’s Tale, so she opposes fascism, and calls herself an “everyday antifascist.” Sarah isn’t scary; she’s a mom and an entrepreneur, a cyclist and an urban planner who studied at PSU. Sarah isn’t a radical, she’s just unapologetic about being right when confronted with injustice. That scares people who would rather see progress fail.

What about Sarah’s social media temperament and use of foul language?

Sarah is a straight-shooter who speaks from the heart, and she’s not a professional politician so occasionally she “puts her foot in her mouth.” But she’s authentic, and she uses social media, particularly her personal twitter account, to connect to Portland. She is in community all the time representing #OurPortland, our shared vision of a progressive city that overcomes the challenges of our day. Media have focused on Sarah swearing at the Mayor when he’s made major mistakes. Sarah is focused on fixing those mistakes, not apologizing for swearing, or social media drama.

Will Sarah step down? I plan to write-in a candidate who lost the primary.

Elections have consequences. After our victory in the primary election in May, our next Mayor Sarah Iannarone and our current Mayor Ted Wheeler are on the ballot in November. It was through hard work and smart campaigning that Sarah made it this far. We believe in democracy, and following the public process that helps us maintain stability as a city. Voters recognize a viable alternative to the failures of Ted Wheeler. Sarah is going to win. Nobody would love to see Sarah drop out more than the business interests that support Ted Wheeler’s re-election.

Does it make me a racist to vote for a white woman candidate? A cyberbully told me it does.

No. No single vote for any candidate can replace being actively anti-racist in our daily lives. No race of people is a monolith, and we don’t tokenize people of color who support Sarah as representing everyone in their racial category. But tons of Black, Indigenous, People of Color support the Sarah for Mayor Campaign, and we love them and listen to them on the issues that matter to them. Sarah is a white woman who stands up against white supremacy in public, speaking out on fascism and white nationalism so often that the right wing demonizes her for it. This is not a moment in American history for white people to stop showing up or standing down. It’s time for white people to stand up and act right. Sarah is committed to being a strong Mayor who shows up for and advances racial justice.

Sarah shared more about supporting the Black Lives Matter movement here: