KOIN 6 News contacted candidates who are planning to run for Oregon governor in 2022, asking them to respond to these three questions:

  • Why are you running for governor? 
  • In your opinion, what are the top three issues Oregon is facing right now? 
  • What is something you believe is going right in Oregon and how would you like to continue to build on it?

Amber Richardson is running as a Republican. Here are her responses:

Why are you running for governor?  

Where to begin, most of us adults know or have heard of physical abuse, sexual abuse or domestic abuse. I think it is safe to say that all Oregonians can say that they now know what extreme government abuse is as well. I’m a local licensed massage therapist in southern Oregon. I’ve been at my practice for almost 12 years now. Born and raised in Oregon, and this is not Oregon, not at all. In the last 4 years or so I’ve asked my youth starting college, or a trade school, or the beginning of adulthood: “Are you so excited? What are you going to do? Buy a house? Start a business? “ I’m told “No, no I just want a high paying job, get by, and pay my taxes.” This is so sad. Our youth have lost sight of the American dream of homeownership, or starting a business. They find it to be a pipe dream and mislead from our leaders. I tell them it doesn’t matter how high of a wage you make, the government will always want more. You need to have ownership of something, an asset, you can’t just keep working and giving your money away. If we do not educate the way our youth are voting and truly how they are being indoctrinated, not only will this state continue to dissolve, but our youth will never be able to survive. They will continue to move away and new, young families will come and then move away and the cycle will continue. Our elderly will continue to be pushed away like they don’t matter, like what happened with this pandemic. Our current governor and establishment let criminals out of jail early, locked up our elderly and treated them like second class citizens. How we continue to treat our elederly population is outlandish to me. Crime is up 800 percent. Our police force has been defunded. Our cities, and businesses are destroyed. There is zero respect for law and order in our cities. Our education system, words can’t even describe how terrible the youth will not be prepared with fundamental life skills, let alone basic knowledge of reading, math, and science. Common core was a huge mistake, CRT should have never been allowed, or whatever other name is falsely misled with the same outcome of CRT. Our parents are left helpless with little faith in our school system, and with our government. Our teachers are burnt out and our medical industries are burnt out. We have been mandated with masks, shutdowns, and vaccines, we have been bribed, we have been threatened, we have been overrun by a tyrannical, power hungry, backstabbing, two faced , three faced, LIAR. AND we are DONE. We have had enough. So I’m running because I want to bring Hope back to Oregon. We are so tired of the mess. I’m not a politician, I’m a Patriot and I have had enough. 

In your opinion, what are the top three issues Oregon is facing right now? 

Well I feel like I answered this question in the first question as well. Oregon is facing a list of critical issues right now, going into winter we will be facing more. Inflation, power (due to Kate Brown shutting down coal mining…). So along with our state issues, add nationwide issues to the list. This list is not in order: crime, election integrity, forest management, education, elderly, our gun RIGHTS!!!!!, homeless, audit of government funded agencies, marijuana farms and cartel

What is something you believe is going right in Oregon and how would you like to continue to build on it?

I feel a shift in Oregon, we are uniting. People are fed up and looking to connect more in a non-partisan way and working together. I feel we have some strong leadership groups like People’s Rights groups, Citizens Restoring Liberty, My Brother’s Keeper. I actually think this is a great way for the Republican party, especially the youth to navigate to groups and join. Learn about our rights in a non-partisan way and unite with our community. I think podcasts are a great way to start networking with these groups. Also we have got to have an audit on our elections from 2020. Our elections haven’t been on the up and up in Oregon for so long. I can tell you that Jackson County is taking a non-partisan approach to the audit. This is the best way for an audit and there is an election integrity effort team in Jackson County. We need our youth to step up and get involved in our political system. It is time for Change!!! 

Editor’s Note: Amber Richardson told KOIN 6 News her source for saying “Crime is up 800 percent” is an article published by the National Republican Congressional Committee titled “Portland homicides up 800% after Democrats defund the police.” The article only mentions homicides, not all crime, and cites numbers from the National Fraternal Order of Police, which claims that between Jan. 1 and May 25, 2021, homicides in Portland were 800% greater than they were during the same period in 2020. KOIN could not confirm the 800%, but information from the Portland Police Bureau shows that from January-May 2020, there were six homicides and from January-May 2021, there were 38 homicides. 

Richardson cited an Oregonian poll from May 2021 as her source for saying “Our cities, and businesses are destroyed. There is zero respect for law and order in our cities.  

KOIN 6 News made minor adjustments to spelling, capitalization and punctuation in the responses the gubernatorial candidates submitted.