Meet Luke Zak
A lifelong leader and community advocate with the commitment and compassion to fight for a Portland that will serve all Portlanders
A proud Portland transplant, I was born and raised in Minnesota. Though I found outlets for volunteerism and leadership early on in life, including my work with the youth service non-profit Students Today Leaders Forever, it wasn’t until I reached voting age that I discovered the importance of civic engagement and getting involved in local politics. In 2012, the first presidential election cycle I was old enough to vote in, Minnesotans were additionally faced with two legislatively referred ballot measures: the first aiming to ban marriage between same-sex couples and the second attempting to further restrict access to voting.
While the fight for civil rights began long before me, this was my first time experiencing it firsthand—with those holding political power attempting to legislate away my own rights while simultaneously working to disenfranchise voters already struggling to participate in our democratic process. Thankfully, due to an unprecedented grassroots movement, both of those state constitutional amendments were defeated, but the situation had a lasting impact on me. Following that election, I began to caucus with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and increase my political awareness, which further fostered my community-based ideologies that guide me to this day.
On my first visit to Portland, I discovered a city that was a kindred spirit to my home town of Minneapolis. A city with progressive values, an offbeat culture, and immersion in endless natural beauty. I fell in love with Portland and the Pacific Northwest. Three short years later, I moved to Oregon to pursue my MBA in Advanced Strategy + Leadership at the University of Oregon.
During my studies, as the world seemingly fell into a tailspin, I felt compelled to double down on my activism. This took different forms, from participating in the widespread demonstrations demanding accountability around police brutality to spending two weeks knocking on doors with Showing Up for Racial Justice in Marietta and the northwest Atlanta area in support of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the 2021 Georgia Senate runoff election.
After graduating, I relocated to Portland with my boyfriend and have spent nearly the past three years working in the travel and tourism industry, acting as an advocate and steward for our region. Through this lens, I have been able to witness first hand the successes we have had as well as the ways in which we have been coming up short as a city and as a community. Our city is on the rebound, but a future Portland that is livable and equitable for all still requires a lot of hard work.
I am running for City Council because every person in Portland deserves to see a reflection of themself within City Hall.
I am running for City Council because I believe that making lasting, impactful change begins at the local level.
I am running for City Council because Portlanders deserve leadership guided by the values to make the right decisions and the pragmatism to execute them.
We are living through a historic moment in Portland politics. After eleventy-one years under a commission style government, Portland is shifting to an expanded legislative city council. For the first time in over a century, Portlanders have the once-in-a-generation opportunity to elect a representative government that will ensure a safe, prosperous, and thriving future for us all.
And I would love your support in helping us get there,
