State Rep. Cyrus Javadi, a Republican from Tillamook, is the subject of a recall petition from a constituent upset about several votes he took during the session protecting libraries from book bans and honoring Black drag performers. (Campaign photo)

Kristina Nelson in her petition criticized several of Javadi’s votes during the Legislative session for not reflecting ‘conservative moral order and values’

 

In October 2022, Katrina Nelson of Westport, Oregon, wrote in a letter to the Astorian newspaper that she was voting for Cyrus Javadi, a Republican dentist from Tillamook, to represent her in the Oregon House because he’s “coming into this national battle for freedom with an open mind and an open heart.”

Now, less than three years later and into Javadi’s second term representing the state’s 32nd House District along the Oregon Coast, Nelson is leading an effort to have him recalled.

On Thursday, Nelson filed a petition with the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office to recall Javadi, citing her disagreement with his recent votes to pass Senate Bill 1098 — protecting access to school library books that discuss different religions, sexualities and disabilities — and to pass House Resolution 3 — honoring Oregon’s Black drag performers for their contribution to the state’s culture, history and to LGBTQ+ acceptance today.

Javadi, who said he’s corresponded with Nelson about her criticisms, characterized her recall petition as a veiled threat to him for not voting in alignment with far-right members of the Republican party and loyalists to President Donald Trump, rather than a real effort to have him unseated.

“It’s (the recall petition) not for corruption or accusing me of anything. It’s just simply that she didn’t like the way I voted,” he said. “I think she’s just kind of in that mindset right now that if you don’t do exactly what we say, then we’ll pull you. We’ll recall you if you’re not ‘Trump enough’ or ‘MAGA enough.’”

Nelson, when reached by phone, agreed only to answer questions via email, and said that she needed time to have a spokesperson review her answers. She did not respond to the Capital Chronicle’s emailed questions by late Monday afternoon.

By law she has to collect more than 5,400 signatures — 15% of the number of votes cast for governor in the district during the most recent gubernatorial election — by Sept. 24 to get the recall onto local ballots for a district-wide vote.

The recall petition is voided if Nelson does not gather enough signatures. If she does get enough signatures, Javadi has five days to either resign, or submit his own 200-word statement to be included on the ballot, explaining why he should remain in office.

There are 54,400 registered voters in the district that runs along the Central and Northwest coast of Oregon from Lincoln City to Astoria. Slightly more voters are registered as Democrats than Republicans, and like most Oregon districts, the bulk of voters are not affiliated with any one party, according to the most recent voter registration data from the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office.

Values and votes

In her petition, Nelson characterized Javadi’s “yes” vote on Senate Bill 1098 as being “in favor of keeping porn in school,” and his vote on House Resolution 3 as not reflecting “conservative moral order and values.” Lastly, she said Javadi should be recalled because he “failed to clarify his position on the biggest tax increase in Oregon history HB 2025.”

Javadi, as well as most Oregon legislators, never got to take a vote on House Bill 2025, the state’s big transportation funding bill that Republicans criticized for being too expensive and being released too late in the session. House Republicans chose not to vote on any transportation biilla t all by the time the 2025 session wrapped on Friday.

Javadi said he talked with Nelson, who often reaches out via email, Facebook and text messages, about his vote on Senate Bill 1098 and on House Resolution 3, and that he shared his thoughts about voting “no” on the transportation bill in constituent newsletters and on Facebook “which she follows pretty closely.”

“She knows SB 1098 was not about putting porn in school. She knows that the HR-3 was, for me, a moment to defend free speech.”

Javadi was the only Republican to vote in favor of the bill banning book bans on the basis of their being about or by a member of a protected class, such as the LGBTQ+ community. On the House floor explaining his vote, he shared the story of his son, who grew up in rural Oregon and who read books to help him understand his identity as a young gay man.

“You can remove a book if the content is too graphic,” Javadi told lawmakers. “You can remove it if it’s not age appropriate, but you can’t remove it just because the author is gay or Muslim or Black or because the story centers someone that makes you uncomfortable.”

Javadi and state Rep. Kevin Mannix, a Salem Republican, were the only two Republicans who voted in favor of the resolution honoring Black drag performers.

“While we may not all share the same beliefs or backgrounds, we share this place, this country, this constitution and I support the spirit of this resolution because it affirms that no matter who you are or what you believe, you matter and you’re welcome here,” Javadi said on the House floor.

Javadi said Nelson has reached out in the past to criticize him for supporting mail-in voting, which she thinks leads to fraud in elections. Oregonians have voted entirely by mail since 2000, after nearly 70% of voters approved switching to mail ballots in 1998. Javadi said that Nelson has also asked that he sign the “Convention of the States,” a far right effort to get at least 34 state legislatures to hold a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution. Congress is required Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution to hold a convention if two-thirds of state legislatures call for it.

Proponents of the movement say the goal is to reign in the federal government’s spending power and tackle the national debt. But there are no rules limiting all kinds of other amendments that could be added, worrying legal scholars who say it could open the door to lawmakers changing citizenship requirements, presidential term-limits and other rights and laws the Constitution currently protects.

Javadi said he will begin undertaking some fundraising in case he has to campaign against Nelson’s recall petition, and that if she’s opposed to his policy decisions, there’s a better way to challenge him on the ballot.

“If you don’t like it, then run,” he said.