Long-shot candidate Justin Filip campaigns aggressively to represent Oregon’s 4th Congressional District.

Watching a third-party congressional campaign is not unlike reading about Don Quixote lunging and tilting at windmills. Like the gentleman from La Mancha, Justin Filip has said farewell to a typical life, and has spent the past few months traversing the countryside, extolling his virtues and serving his nation. Despite impossible odds, Filip is running to represent Oregon’s 4th Congressional District as a member of the Pacific Green Party.

Exactly two weeks out from his first election, on a crisp, chilly Eugene morning, Filip sat on the back patio of a coffeehouse, framed by old issues of The Black Panther newspaper on the wall behind him. He sipped his coffee with gloved hands. The fog from his breath mingled with the steam from his drink. He sat in anonymity, despite the fact that when the other patrons at the coffeeshop cast their ballots, he’ll be one of their options for the House of Representatives, along with Democratic incumbent Val Hoyle and Republican Monique DeSpain. 

Filip never saw himself as a political candidate, he said. Then, this past spring, he found himself inspired by the pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of Oregon campus. “I just felt like the logical next step was taking that pressure campaign that students were trying to have on campus and take it to the electoral level, and really challenge Val Hoyle on her voting record on this particular issue,” Filip said. 

Some voters in his district have responded to Filip’s pro-Palestine messaging. Corvallis resident Ashton Hanson, 23, cast his ballot for Filip because “he can actually admit that there is an ongoing genocide that we are directly complicit in,” Hanson said.

Filip knows that, though he has some support, his chances of victory in November are slim. Hoyle, the incumbent, is heavily favored to win, and a Green Party candidate has never been elected to federal office in history. “It’s a big uphill climb,” and it might not happen in 2024, he said.

To him, the Green Party has already achieved one victory this election cycle. Ranked choice voting, an alternative voting system that would offer a significant boost to third parties, is on the ballot this year in Oregon. “I think we have to sort of take a step back and redefine what winning looks like,” Filip said.

Without the funding available to major party candidates, Filip had to launch an aggressive campaign on the ground, adopting a strategy of never saying no. “I have accepted every invitation extended to me by different towns in our district,” he said. He recently attended a forum thrown by the Roseburg Chamber of Commerce. “It was a tough crowd,” Filip said, “I mean, Green Party is not exactly, y’know, as business-friendly as maybe the Republicans are.” 

He spoke in Reedsport, a marshy, estuarine town near the mouth of the Umpqua River. “A really red area traditionally, but there were some high school students there,” he said. “And they came up to me afterward and were like ‘I really appreciated your comments,’ which was a pleasant surprise.” 

 Filip knew before he began that there would be frustrations and problems. “The media is not covering us. We’re being vastly outspent by the major parties,” Filip said. “I’m sure they’re trying to demoralize us, I’m sure they’re trying to get us to give up, but we’re not gonna give up that easily.”