When we profiled Oregon Rep. Cyrus Javadi last October, he had recently left the Republican Party and joined the Democrats. A year later, he is running for reelection as a Democrat.
Javadi won the Democratic nomination for House District 32 in May without an opponent. He will face Republican Max Sherman in the Nov. 3 general election.
For Javadi, the party change has been less dramatic in practice than it might look from the outside.
“The biggest surprise is how little my day-to-day work has changed. I still approach the job the same way,” he said. “I listen to people. I try to solve problems. And I am still willing to disagree with my own party when I think it is wrong. I changed parties, but I didn’t suddenly become a different person or adopt a whole new set of beliefs.”
He said what has in fact changed is that he has found more room to work on issues that matter to him, particularly health care and personal freedom.
During the 2026 legislative session, Javadi sponsored House Bill 4088, which strengthened Oregon’s protections for reproductive and gender-affirming health care. The law also includes privacy protections and limits Oregon’s cooperation with certain investigations or legal actions from other states.
“HB 4088 was probably the most significant. I was proud to sponsor it,” Javadi said. “To me, there is an important principle behind that bill. Oregon gets to make Oregon’s laws. Other states get to make theirs. But another state should not be able to reach into Oregon and punish someone for receiving or providing health care that is lawful here.”
Javadi also worked on maintaining access to reproductive health care after cuts in federal funding affected Planned Parenthood, sponsoring legislation to use state funds to replace the losses.
For LGBTQ+ Oregonians, health care is one piece of a broader approach Javadi says he has carried into his first year as a Democrat.
“On social issues, my basic rule is pretty simple: government should be very careful about inserting itself into deeply personal decisions between people, their families and their medical providers,” Javadi said.
That approach is not limited to social issues. Since starting his reelection campaign, Javadi said he has been hearing from constituents about the rising cost of everyday life.
“I’ve been knocking on a lot of doors,” he said. “And I’ve been reading a lot of emails. Affordability is probably the biggest issue I hear about. Housing, food, health care, utilities… all cost more than they did a couple of years ago, and people are feeling squeezed. Especially the working poor up through the middle class. And it doesn’t matter which community they live in either. People from every background and zip code are feeling stretched.”
He said he is also focused on keeping people connected to their doctors, particularly in rural communities, along with infrastructure, education, public safety, and making state government work better.
His work in Salem has continued to center partly on health care. During the 2026 session, Javadi served as vice chair of the House Behavioral Health Committee and as a member of the House Health Care Committee and Joint Subcommittee on Human Services.
When asked what he hopes people take away from his time in office, Javadi returned to something that has been part of his political identity from the beginning: listening.
“I hope people know that I’m willing to listen, including when we disagree. Maybe especially when we disagree! I represent a district with wide political mix of folks, and I don’t think my job is to force everyone into the same ideological box.”
If he gets another term, Javadi said he wants to keep working on practical issues while protecting the ability of people to make decisions about their own lives.
“If I’m fortunate enough to serve another term,” he said, “I want to keep working on the practical things that affect people’s lives while also standing up for a fairly simple idea: people deserve equal treatment under the law, dignity from their government, and room to live their lives without politicians needlessly making their private decisions for them.”
Rep. Cyrus Javadi Oregon State Legislature page:
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/javadi
Dr. Javadi State Representative Campaign page:
https://www.cyrusfororegon.com
