When Athena Aguiar was five, she went door-to-door with her father, Gary Aguiar, when he ran for mayor of Brookings, South Dakota.
“The idea that he has, which I also believe, is that elections should not be uncontested,” Aguiar says.
Gary was a political science professor, a Democrat, and pro-labor union. These ideals did not go over well in the primarily red district in Brookings, but showed his daughter that anyone can run for office.
Aguiar, 25, is running for Eugene City Council Ward 5, against incumbent Mike Clark, who’s held the position since 2006. Ward 5 includes north and east Eugene. After neither Clark nor Aguiar received over 50 percent of the vote in the May primary, the race went runoff in this November’s general.
Aguiar says her concept of someone best suited for the job is one willing and able to listen to constituents.
“People have reached out to and not received a response,” Aguiar says of Clark. “To me, that indicates that there’s not that open line of communication.”
Aguiar’s priorities include funding CAHOOTS, Eugene’s former longtime mobile crisis intervention model, supporting low-income housing, and funding childcare and library services. If elected, she will be the only city councilor member of Gen-Z and only with no prior elected experience.
After graduating from Sheldon High School, she attended Coe College and took classes in both molecular biology and environmental sciences. After graduating with a degree in biology, she took a job at Walama Restoration Project, identifying invasive species and caring for native Oregon plants.
“I actually would sometimes question to my coworkers, ‘Are we addressing climate change in this job?’” Aguiar says. “And the main answer I got was, ‘Yeah, a little bit.’”
Aguiar continued to do contract work for Lane County and the city of Eugene, but says she felt the pressure from lack of funding for projects that would prevent wildfires or other long-term symptoms of climate change.
“I understood this to be more complicated than the job I was doing,” Aguiar says, “and that the impact of the job I was doing was being limited by other people making decisions in the government.”
She worked as a canvasser for New Canvassing Experience, Democrats of Lane County, and most recently for the Eugene Clean Energy Fund, before deciding to run for office.
When a friend was looking for housing in Eugene, Aguiar scraped Zillow and Apartments.com for something he could afford making $80,000 a year. She looked for something that didn’t commit over 50 percent of his income, had potential for ownership and was within city limits.
“And it was actually impossible,” she says.
Aguiar says the Eugene publicizes building low-income affordable housing, but does not define affordable for who. Home-owning is hardly available for single or young people. The young people living in Eugene are either living with their parents, renting apartments, or commuting from Cottage Grove or other surrounding towns.
Aguiar herself has experience looking for an affordable room on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, and currently lives in short-term housing. She says her constituents have spoken to her about exchanging labor or childcare for portions of rent.
Aguiar’s campaign manager, Ethan Smith, says she won’t brag, but Aguiar has knocked on at least 5,000 of the 8,000-9,000 doors the campaign has knocked on. Aguiar says each person she talks to has a friend or neighbor she should talk to next, which keeps her motivated.
Aspirations for Salem or DC aren’t on Aguiar’s mind, rather encouraging more and more people to run to keep elections contested. Treasurer or canvassers are always needed position that Aguiar would want to pursue in the future.
Aguiar’s endorsements include the Working Families Party and the Democratic Party of Lane County, State Senator James Manning Jr, and current City Councilors Lyndsie Leech, Matt Keating, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Yeh, and councilor-elect Jennifer Smith
Her favorite place in Eugene is the library, because, “the librarians know what’s up,” and know how to be creative with their budget to provide childcare, resources and education.
As of Nov. 1, Aguiar’s campaign has raised $52,005.41 in cash contributions and in-kind donations and spent $42,503.76.
Visit Athena4eugene.com to learn more about Aguiar’s campaign. The general election is Nov. 3.