After founding and leading the political action organization Progressive Salem for more than a decade, Tina Calos will step back and turn over the Chairpersonship to Chris Hoy.

Progressive Salem was founded in 2015 after a group of Progressives led by Calos successfully elected Tom Andersen to the Salem City Council in 2014. Andersen won a tough victory in a three-way race and in 2015 became the only Progressive on the Salem City Council that had been dominated for years by special interest candidates.

“Tom was our proof of concept,” said Calos. “In his race we proved that organized people could beat organized money.” By recruiting motivated volunteers to go door to door and talk to voters, Progressives showed that they could win, even when being heavily outspent by their opposition.

Progressive Salem took that winning formula and went on to win 16 City Council elections, beginning in  2016. In every race our candidates were outspent, sometimes two to one or three to one or more, with big contributions by developers, realtors, homebuilders and other special interests.      

Our latest win was in Ward 6 last year when Mai Vang bested two opponents for an open seat. Vang’s win preserved a solid 6-3 Progressive majority on the City Council.

Having led Progressive Salem for over a decade, Calos is handing over leadership to former Salem Mayor Chris Hoy, who has been an active member of the Progressive Salem Board and has helped to lead the Candidate Support Committee. He was active in encouraging Dave Inbody to run this year as a Progressive Salem candidate in South Salem’s Ward 4.

This year Progressive Salem is also supporting Vanessa Nordyke’s run for Salem Mayor and the re-election of councilors Linda Nishioka (Ward 2), Mai Vang (Ward 6) and Micki Varney (Ward 8).

“I hope to continue Tina’s strong leadership and winning record,” said Hoy. “She proved time and again that organized people can beat organized money and that will continue to be our mantra.”

Progressive Salem members are already out knocking on doors for all five of their candidates even though the filing deadline is weeks away. “We think 2026 is our year,” says Hoy. “But we have to work hard to make it happen, and we will.”