Kurt Schrader

Early life, education, and early career

Schrader was born in Connecticut and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1973. While at Cornell, Schrader met Martha Northam and the two were married in 1975. Schrader earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Illinois in 1977. A year later, the Schraders moved to Oregon, and Kurt opened the Clackamas County Veterinary Clinic in Oregon City, to begin his veterinary practice.

Schrader served for 16 years on the Canby Planning Commission.

Elections

After winning his first election in 1996, Schrader served four terms in the Oregon House of Representatives. Schrader ran for the Oregon House of Representatives in 1994, where he lost to Republican Jerry Grisham in the general election by 38 votes. In 1996, Schrader ran again; and this time defeated Paul Kraxburger. He was subsequently reelected to the House in 1998 and 2000.

In 2002, Schrader ran for the Oregon State Senate seat vacated by the retiring Verne Duncan, representing the 20th district in southwestern Clackamas County, including the cities of Barlow, Canby, Gladstone, Johnson City, Oregon City and portions of Milwaukie. He defeated fellow Oregon House member Kathy Lowe in a contentious Democratic primary, and then faced no Republican opposition in the general election. Martha Schrader was the Democratic nominee to succeed her husband, but lost in the general election to Wayne Scott. She served as a Clackamas County commissioner until 2009, when she was appointed by the same commission (with Martha recusing herself from voting) to replace her husband in the State Senate.

Committee assignments

In the Oregon Senate, Schrader served as co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee in the 2003 and 2005 sessions, as well as chair of the Interim Joint Legislative Audit Committee in the 2005 session. To prepare for his House seat, Schrader resigned effective December 17, 2008.

Election

In May 2008, Schrader won the Democratic nomination for Oregon's 5th congressional district for the seat being vacated by Darlene Hooley. In the general election, Schrader defeated Republican Mike Erickson, winning election to the U.S. House. Schrader won the election with 54 percent of the vote to Erickson's 38 percent. Schrader won all seven of the counties in the 5th congressional district, though he posted a plurality win in Polk County.

Schrader was challenged by Republican nominee and Oregon State Representative Scott Bruun and Pacific Green nominee Chris Lugo. Despite several polls showing Bruun ahead and pollster Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight predicting Schrader would likely lose his bid for reelection, the final vote tally had Schrader winning by a fairly comfortable five-point margin, picking up 51% of the vote to Bruun's 46%. It was the closest House race in Oregon in 2010, a year in which Republicans picked up at least 63 House seats, but only one on the West Coast.

Tenure

Schrader voted for the Budget Control Act. He voted both in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and for funding SCHIP.

Schrader is a political moderate, breaking with his party more frequently than 63% of the Democratic Caucus.

On December 17, 2009, Schrader announced that he would become a member of the Blue Dog Coalition.

Schrader was ranked as the 50th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring the frequency each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party).

Representative Schrader is pro-choice and has received a 100 rating from both Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. In May 2012, Schrader opposed and voted against the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2012, introduced by Republican Representative Trent Franks of Arizona. The bill proposed imposing criminal penalties for giving abortions in special cases, notably when based on gender, race or color of the child or parent.

Schrader has received a score of 66% from Environment America and an 83% from the Sierra Club for his environmental positions. The League of Conservation Voters gave him a score of 93. Schrader, along with U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, helped award a grant in September 2012 from the Department of Energy to the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC). The grant will be used to create a new ocean energy test facility to test wave energy.

Schrader received a 100% rating from the Children’s Health Fund. In 2010, he received a 100% from American Public Health Association. He supports the Affordable Care Act. Schrader is the co-chair (along with Pennsylvania Representative Allyson Schwartz) of the New Dem Health Care Task Force, which set forth an agenda of “more effectively implementing health care policy in this country that improves payment and delivery systems."

Legislation

Schrader coauthored the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2014 (H.R. 1528; 113th Congress), a bill that would amend the Controlled Substances Act to clarify that veterinarians are not required to have separate registrations to dispense controlled substances outside of their principal place of business, such as when treating animals on a farm.

Committee assignments

Personal life

Schrader and former Oregon state senator Martha Schrader divorced in 2011. Every one of Schrader's predecessors in the 5th District has also divorced while serving in that office: Denny Smith, Mike Kopetski, Jim Bunn and Darlene Hooley. He has five children. On December 31, 2016, Schrader married Pepco executive and former lobbyist Susan Mora.

Schrader's district residence is the Kraft-Brandes-Culberston Farmstead in Canby, also known as Three Rivers Farm, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.