Political events can often get people fired up. Some just get fired. For others, it lights a fire under them to do something dramatic.

Just ask Hank Sanders. On Jan. 20, 2025, he was sitting in his apartment in New York City watching the inauguration of Donald Trump.

There was fire in his eyes. Literally. His apartment drapes were lit up, too. He sprung up from his couch to pull them down and put out the flames. But the fire refused to surrender, and soon Sanders and other apartment dwellers were evacuated onto the street.

The New York Times, where Sanders was a reporter, housed him in temporary accommodations, but the 24-year-old must have felt the inauguration fire was an omen. He soon hopped a plane back to his home state ready to trade the pursuit of Pulitzers for the hotbed of politics. Sanders concedes that his co-workers thought he was crazy.

“A lot of reporters would love to be where you are right now,” was the general reaction. He says he decided he wanted to experience politics in first-person. Sanders has filed for State Representative in House District 52 to represent Hood River and a portion of Clackamas County.

Sanders, the son of State Sen. Lisa Reynolds (D-Portland), had already made a name for himself as an investigative reporter, first with the Chicago Tribune and then the New York Times.

While with the Tribune, he was reporting on the officials at the Chicago suburb of Calumet City, who knew of stormwater system problems and failed to address them prior to severe flooding inundating the city. He was asking multiple city officials about what they knew prior to the flooding, persistence that did not sit well with the city’s Mayor Thaddeus Jones, who also is an Illinois state representative, not to mention the Calumet Liquor Commissioner. (Three paid public gigs. Welcome to Chicagoland.)

It wasn’t long before Sanders was visited by local police officers who issued him three citations. His crime? “Asking too many questions.”

Who knew asking questions was a ticketable offense? The story went national, from the Honolulu Star-Observer to the New York Times. That publicity, along with advice from the city’s attorney, soon resulted in the citations being voided. Something to do with the First Amendment and the right to ask public officials what the heck they are doing.

Chicago Tribune Executive Editor Mitch Pugh responded that in today’s political climate, “uneducated buffoonery has become a virtue, not a liability.”

Sanders’ next story covered an executive from a private engineering firm that the same city had retained to function as a consultant for writing bid solicitations for city work. Sanders uncovered — surprise, surprise — that 75% of the contracts were then awarded to the consultant’s own company. As Frank Sinatra crooned, “My Kind of Town, Chicago Is.”

Sanders’ work caught the attention of the New York Times where he earned a fellowship and was ready to deploy his corruption cracking skills in the Big Apple. Once again, he found there was plenty of low-hanging fruit. He was then offered a full-time job with the Associated Press. It appears odd that with such a fast trajectory he would suddenly slam on the brakes and change direction. But with the 2024 election, his mom’s ascent to the Oregon Senate, and a longing to return home all swirling in his head, Sanders wanted to dive headfirst into the political realm.

Soon after returning home, Sanders went to work as an aide to newly minted U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.). His first congressional event was in Hood River. To help make ends meet living on the wages of a low-level congressional staffer, Sanders also worked doing podcasts for Willamette Week.

He took up residency in Hood River, enjoying the kind of rural environment he experienced when growing up in Gaston. When the legislative session rolled around, he went to work for his mother in the state legislature.

Sanders knows he has his work cut out for him being a relative newcomer to the Mt. Hood area, but he says he is doing his homework and burning the shoe leather. He says he has set a goal of meeting with seven community leaders every week.

When asked why he chose the legislature as his political audition, he had a quick response.

“If you want real work to get done, it all goes through Salem,” he said. “You can get a lot done if you are effective and that starts with listening more than you speak.”

He says that “journalists make good politicians because they are trained to follow facts.” Sanders also credits his state senator mother and pediatrician, Sen. Reynolds, for providing inspiration.

“She works incredibly hard to protect kids.  She imparted on me that in the exam room she dominates. You can’t throw anything at her she hasn’t seen before. But in the legislature, sessions can get out of control,” Sanders said.

With filing day now passed, the race for membership in the next legislative assembly is underway. He will face three other hopefuls in the Democratic primary in May. Sanders is hoping his byline will be included when the roll is called in the House Chamber next January. Out of one fire and into the next.