Political Power and Truth

In every election cycle, Americans are told that “character matters.” Yet too often, voters watch candidates treat truth and personal integrity as expendable luxuries—sacrificed without hesitation on the altar of political power.

The current Republican primary for Oregon’s open U.S. Senate seat offers a textbook example of this troubling pattern.

One candidate has chosen to attack Russ McAlmond’s most obvious strength—his unmatched educational qualifications—not with facts, but with a public falsehood. The motive is transparent: neutralize McAlmond’s clear advantage as the most prepared candidate in the race.

The casualty is something far more important than any single debate point: the principle that public service must rest on honesty, not manipulation.The facts are not in dispute; they are printed in black and white in the official Oregon Voter’s Pamphlet.

Russ McAlmond holds four degrees in finance and business. His opponent, David B Smith, holds one.

McAlmond’s credentials—an MBA, an MS in Financial Services (MSFS), the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation, and additional advanced coursework—represent decades of rigorous, specialized training in the exact subjects that dominate Senate work: taxation, trade, entitlement reform, and economic policy. These qualifications are not decorative; they are functional.

They position McAlmond to be an immediate asset on the Senate Finance Committee—one of the most powerful panels in Congress, with jurisdiction over the nation’s tax code, healthcare financing, Social Security, and international finance.

Oregon has never had a US Senator with this depth of expertise. McAlmond’s statement that he is the most educated candidate on either the Republican or Democratic side is not bravado; it is arithmetic.

Even that understates the case.

In May of this year, McAlmond will receive a fifth degree—a Master of Biblical Theology from Belhaven University. That credential, earned while campaigning and running businesses, speaks to moral formation and intellectual discipline that no voter’s pamphlet could yet capture.

Yet in a public appearance, his opponent deliberately claimed McAlmond had less education than he actually possesses. The claim was not a slip of the tongue or an honest mistake. It was a calculated effort to dilute the very advantage that makes McAlmond the most credible conservative voice in the race.

When a candidate is willing to lie about something so easily disproven—something that appears in the state’s own official guide to voters—one must ask what other truths they are prepared to distort once the cameras are off and the power is real.

This is the deeper harm. Political lies about policy are damaging enough. But when a candidate lies about an opponent’s character and record in order to claw back an electoral disadvantage, something fundamental erodes. Public service becomes just another transaction: truth traded for tactical gain, integrity exchanged for momentum.

Oregonians have watched this script play out before—promises made, principles abandoned, voters left cynical. The pursuit of power at the expense of truth does not stop at the primary; it metastasizes in office. A senator who begins his campaign by misrepresenting verifiable facts will find it easier, months later, to misrepresent the cost of legislation, the impact of regulation, or the burden placed on Oregon families.

Russ McAlmond has chosen a different path. He has laid his record before voters openly. He has not hidden his achievements behind false modesty, nor has he stooped to the tactics now being used against him. His education was not purchased for résumé padding; it was earned to serve—first in business, now in public life.

Oregon’s next US Senator will be asked to vote on trillion-dollar budgets, complex tax reforms, and entitlement programs that will shape the state’s economy for a generation. Voters deserve someone who understands those issues at a professional level, not someone who must outsource judgment to staff or ideology.

The choice before Republican voters is therefore larger than any single candidate’s résumé. It is a referendum on whether Oregon politics will reward integrity or incentivize its erosion. Those who place the pursuit of power ahead of truth have already revealed their character. The rest of us—Republicans, independents, and concerned Democrats alike—must decide whether that character is what we want representing Oregon in the United States Senate.

Russ McAlmond offers a principled alternative. He is the candidate who refuses to play the old game of manufactured attacks and convenient falsehoods. In an era when too many politicians treat voters as means to an end, McAlmond still believes the ends—effective, honest governance—must never justify dishonest means.

Oregon deserves a US Senator who values truth more than temporary advantage, personal integrity more than polling bumps, and service more than self-promotion.