Bridget Barton Oregon Governor Candidate 4:08PM Monday April 18, 2022, on KWRO
About Bridget Barton
For 30 years, conservative writer Bridget Barton has been a trusted advisor and advocate for Oregon’s most iconic builders, creators, and employers. She launched a conservative magazine called Brainstorm NW in 1997 when many said it was too risky. The magazine became a digital publication which she still publishes and edits.
Thousands of Oregonians continue to look to Oregon Transformation for thoughtful perspectives on important state and regional issues, including community and elected leaders as well as media. For 30 years, Barton has been on the outside of politics looking in—analyzing and proposing solutions to Oregon’s toughest problems that politicians have been too afraid to address.
Barton grew up in Virginia and received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy and secondary-level teaching certification from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. After graduation from college, she taught high school for one year before relocating to the West Coast. At the early age of 14, Barton began a long struggle with addiction to alcohol. She was a chronic alcoholic by the time she stopped drinking at 28. For the past 40 years, her journey in sobriety has touched many lives and provided insight into the growing problems of homelessness and addiction on our streets.
Barton has focused much of her career on improving education. As a young mom and freelance writer, Barton started researching the charter school movement in other states. She began advocating for the introduction of charter schools in Oregon to offer parents and kids alternatives to “Big Box” education. The charter school movement sparked Barton’s ongoing interest and involvement in other tough Oregon policy debates like taxes, energy, transportation, natural resources, and drug and alcohol policy.
Barton has always answered the call to serve her community. She served previously on the Clackamas County Children and Youth Coordinating Council, the South Fork Water Board Budget Committee, and the City of West Linn’s Public Facilities Task Force. More recently she served on the DePaul Treatment Center Board and serves currently on the Freedom Foundation Board and Clackamas Extension Service Board.
Bridget Barton and Curtis, her husband of 39 years, live in West Linn, Oregon. They have two adult children, a son and a daughter, who she helped to put through college by breaking horses. She is an award-winning jumper rider.