Former Sen. Tim Knopp served in the Oregon legislature for 18 years, working as a state representative from 1999 to 2005, then as a member of the State Senate from 2013 to 2025. Knopp, ineligible to run for reelection in 2024 after leading the longest walkout in the state’s history, says he’s going back to his roots in grassroots advocacy work. The Source Weekly caught up with Knopp about his work in the legislature, the state of Central Oregon Republicans and his new position with advocacy group, U.S. Term Limits.
Source Weekly: Tell me about your new position with U.S. Term Limits.
Tim Knopp: I’m an Oregon co-director, in a bipartisan way, with a colleague from the Lane County area. We’re working to get a constitutional amendment referred in Oregon, as well as nationally, through Congress, for congressional term limits. I’ve always been a supporter of term limits and my advocacy goes back probably to 1994 on this issue.
SW: What sparked this desire to advocate for term limits?
TK: I was looking forward to taking a break from policy and politics for a while, but U.S. Term Limits called and said I had been recommended by several people to take over the co-director spot that Alek Skarlatos had been in. It’s completely volunteer, which is important, because I can’t be paid to [professionally] lobby for a year after leaving the legislature.
I just believe that what the founders envisioned was not people serving, you know, 20, 40, 50 years at a time, because it, quite frankly, turns into more of people ruling versus people serving.
I don’t think that’s healthy, and here’s how we know it’s not healthy. The United States has a nearly $36 trillion debt, and that has been caused by people that have been in Congress for decades, and they don’t seem to care or do anything about it, and it’s gonna literally destroy the country economically.
SW: Being a public servant for so many years, how does it feel transitioning into this new space?
TK: It’s like coming home, because that’s where I started over 30 years ago. I was a grassroots activist. The first thing I really did publicly in Oregon was, I was unhappy about the legislature’s referral of a sales tax in 1993. I founded a group and a PAC to fight that at the ballot. There were several different groups that got started — mine was just kind of an uprising of a grassroots group here in Central Oregon, and we ended up winning that pretty significantly.
SW: Locally, Democrats saw overwhelming victories in this past election. What are your thoughts on this? How does it affect the state of Central Oregon Republicans?
TK: I think that, generally, Central Oregon has been moving slowly over time more Democrat, and that is due to the influx of people coming to Central Oregon that are from California, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and they tend to lean left. So, my district, basically, moved about one point Democrat every year. Redistricting moved it a little bit more, but I don’t think it was significant. There’s no question that Bend has become much more left-leaning, and that is what the electorate is voting for right now. So, I think it’s challenging for any Republican that has a significant portion of whatever district they’re in in Bend to run and win office in Bend or Central Oregon.
SW: Lastly, how do you feel about your time serving the state of Oregon?
TK: It’s been such an honor for me to be able to serve for 18 years in the legislature, and there’s been so much that’s been accomplished.
I was there at the beginning helping to found and fund OSU-Cascades campus. I think that will be a long-lasting impact. I think the kicker is going to be a long-lasting legacy – putting that in the Constitution. The Democrats would have gotten rid of the kicker a couple decades ago if it wasn’t in the Constitution. That happened in the year 2000 in an election and has returned literally billions of dollars to taxpayers, the biggest one of which just most recently happened last year.
I think there are a lot of other things, like Kaylee’s Law…which was critically important to keep our students safe, and other things like increasing the statute of limitations on rape in Oregon. And then, of course, honoring veterans – we’ve done so much great work there as well.
When I look back on the totality of over 450 pieces of legislation that I’ve been a sponsor, chief sponsor or co-sponsor of, I’m proud of the work that we’ve been able to accomplish as a community, because really, much of that was community-driven. And I always felt like I was just the instrument for the community to be able to, you know, raise their voice and to get things done that they cared about.
This article appears in The Source Weekly January 23, 2025.
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I think you would have remained in the Senate if it weren’t for you party’s extreme positions. They became so hateful and nasty that it cast a shadow on you. I would love to see elected officials age capped at 78, keep working, you have a lot of support from all sides on that.