Teddy Keizer accomplishes his goals.  Today, his goal is to improve the quality of life for families in Oregon by championing universal health coverage, stable school funding, smaller K-12 class sizes, and the protection of our water, wildlife, and forests. 

Born in Coos Bay, Teddy is a seventh generation Oregonian whose ancestor, Thomas Dove Keizer, led a wagon train over the Oregon Trail in 1843, and later had Keizer, Oregon, named after his homestead.  Teddy left Oregon to attend Brown University, where he studied geology, biology, and political science and served as student body president.  Following graduation Teddy helped developed Patrick Kennedy’s environmental platform in his successful run for Congress.

Teddy put his passion for social change into action.  He worked on Tom Potter’s campaign for mayor, John Kerry’s bid for President, and the “No on Constitutional Amendment 36” campaign.  Teddy also worked as a legislative assistant for Oregon State Senator Joanne Verger, where he helped develop a bill to bring healthy food to schools, and successfully advocated for expanding the Bottle Bill.

In 2006, Teddy became the Statewide Organizer for the non-profit Stand for Children that worked with a coalition of school and children’s advocacy organizations to promote educational reforms in the 2007 legislative session. The coalition’s goal was to ensure additional funding for K-12 education; it successfully lobbied the Legislature to appropriate $260 million of additional funds for schools, fully fund Head Start, set statewide school nutrition standards, and establish a first and second year teacher mentoring program.  Teddy also worked with groups across Oregon to improve local school nutrition policies, mentoring programs and public parks, and to elect education advocates to office. 

While working in a variety of jobs after college, Teddy developed his commitment to and understanding of issues facing working families.  Among other jobs, Teddy worked at a fish processing plant in Charleston, Oregon; drove an ambulance in Missouri; and taught Geology at a Massachusetts high school.  In these jobs, he learned about people’s struggles with health care costs, their difficulties making ends meet, and the obstacles to upward mobility.  Having worked in both union and non-union jobs, Teddy experienced first-hand the essential quality-of-life benefits that unions provide for working families.  He also witnessed environmental devastation throughout the country and resolved to protect Oregon from the same fate.
   
Teddy’s passion for the outdoors and wilderness conservation as well as his desire to bring people together to achieve a common goal led him to take on a new challenge -- setting the speed record for climbing all 55 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks.  Teddy trained for two years, organized a dedicated crew to support him on the trail, and set a world record that remains unbroken.  Teddy went on to set world records in the Adirondacks and Catskills in New York, the Barkley Marathon in Tennessee (one of the most difficult 100-mile foot races in the world), and Vermont’s Long Trail.  As a tribute to Bob Marshall, a founder of the wilderness preservation movement, Teddy partnered with Duofold outdoor clothing company to complete a 50-kilometer hike in each state in 75 days.

This past summer, Teddy and his wife Ann, who teaches eighth grade in Portland, were married at Kruger’s Farm on Sauvie Island.  Today, Teddy can be found going door to door in the district to meet the citizens of inner Southeast Portland and hear their concerns. 

Teddy invites you to help him bring about a new era of progressivism and achieve lasting benefits for all Oregonians.