UMATILLA COUNTY — An associate pastor at Hermiston’s Living Springs Apostolic Church and the chief executive officer of the Einstein Learning Center, Jonathan Lopez, 29, has committed himself to the Umatilla County community in his short time here.

“I have no political background or involvement in my past history, but I am a person who always cares and is concerned for his community,” he said. “If I’m being prosperous, if I’m being successful, then I shouldn’t be content with other people’s misery.”

Lopez is now focused on dedicating himself to helping the local community progress, which he hopes to achieve as the next Umatilla County commissioner.

“I want to work for all the residents of Umatilla County. I want to reestablish our place in the world so that they can see our potential and what we have here as a county in the state of Oregon,” he said.

Lopez is one of five candidates in the May 19 primary running for the county board of commissioners’ only open seat. Current Commissioner Bill Elfering opted not to run for reelection after holding office for eight years. The primary’s top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the November general election.

Lopez was born in Los Angeles and moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia, when he was 10 years old, where he was raised and lived until moving to Hermiston at the end of 2017.

That fact, coupled with him being more than 30 years younger than any of the other commissioner candidates, could label Lopez as the new kid on the block. Lopez doesn’t want to use that youth to completely overhaul the ideas and perspectives of the area’s older generations, but rather hopes to be a unifier between generations.

“Age brings wisdom, but me being younger also allows me to connect with other populations, such as the young couples coming to the area,” he says. “I could be a good bridge between both generations.”

Lopez is also a member of the Hermiston Hispanic Advisory Committee, and as the COVID-19 pandemic has escalated over the past months, he’s committed himself to disseminating bilingual information on his social media pages to keep a portion of the population that data shows has been especially vulnerable to the virus.

According to the Oregon Health Authority’s update last Tuesday, despite accounting for just 13% of Oregon’s population, people who identify as Hispanic make up 27% of the state’s confirmed cases of COVID-19.

“That’s something we must understand. That right now, our Hispanic and Latino population are the ones working — the ones that are at risk to put the food in the grocery stores,” Lopez said. “So they’re asking that the next representative can do the best they can to bridge that gap.”

Lopez identified a clear gap between the county and local Latino and Hispanic communities, and particularly its non-English speaking communities, when the public health department was only providing news releases and information about the pandemic in English.

Though he believes learning and speaking some extent of English is necessary as an American, Lopez highlighted bridging that gap means more than just trying to provide more resources for learning English. Instead, it takes an understanding of the diversity within the area’s Latino and Hispanic communities.

“The thing with Latino and Hispanic communities is that, at least the population that does come to Umatilla County, Spanish may be a second language to them,” Lopez said. “They come from indigenous areas in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, areas of other countries — not just Mexico.”

“To learn Spanish is already an advancement in education for them. So when it comes to learning English, that’s a third language that they have to work through an obstacle for.”

Along with striving toward better connections between the county and its Latino and Hispanic communities, Lopez wants to take advantage of the county’s geographic position along Interstate 84 and close to the Washington border to bring more jobs and development.

“I would like to look for ways to bring more companies into the county to invest in it,” he says.

Lopez also hopes to work alongside Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan to better secure the safety of the county, which likely means continuing Rowan’s efforts to expand his deputy force to cover its vast area.

“There’s a saying there’s ‘no man’s land,’ and that’s kind of scary if you think about it,” Lopez said.

But to truly secure public safety, Lopez said it’s important not just to have law enforcement coverage all across the county, but to also have support all across the county.

“He needs community support,” Lopez said of Rowan. “There has to be more of a relationship with the public so they can understand that law enforcement is here not just to break up their parties or arrest people, but it’s a sign and a symbol of unity and protection.”

Lopez has felt the effects of the pandemic, and without the Einstein Learning Center open for now, he’s had to pick up a second job at 395 Quick Stop in Hermiston. While that’s cut into his campaigning, Lopez says he’s already received a few official endorsements, including one from the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555.

He may be young and relatively new to the area, but Lopez feels his fresh perspective and commitment to the community can help lead Umatilla County toward progress.

“I believe that if we use our county to its best capabilities, we can make it shine,” he says.

Jonathan Lopez

Age: 29

Residence: Hermiston

Birthplace: Los Angeles, California

Years in Umatilla County: 3

Highest level of education: Masters in business administration at Georgetown University

Occupation: CEO of Einstein Learning Center, associate pastor at Living Springs Apostolic Church in Hermiston.

Quote: “If I’m being prosperous, if I’m being successful, then I shouldn’t be content with other people’s misery.”

This is the fifth in a series of stories on the five candidates for Position 3 on the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners.