A Conversation with Dr. Melissa Bird - Running for Congress with Heart, Spirit, and Revolutionary Love
Friends - Meet Dr. Melissa Bird
Dr. Melissa Bird is a descendant of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes, nationally recognized lay preacher, author, speaker, and congressional candidate for Oregon’s 4th District. She is the host of “The Thinnest Veil” podcast and author of “Love Notes and Prayers: Guidance for the Soul.” Dr. Bird creates spaces where intuition meets action, where ancestral wisdom meets modern healing, and where spiritual gifts become tools for collective liberation.
Doesn’t she just look like a powerful badass woman in CHARGE!? :)
I am a huge supporter of Dr. Melissa Bird’s congressional campaign, and I want to tell you why.
Dr. Bird is one of those rare people who brings together logic and emotion, spirituality and pragmatic conversation, in a way that feels both revolutionary and deeply grounded. She is a warrior of love—not the soft, passive kind, but the fierce, transformative kind that changes systems and heals communities.
What I love most about Melissa is her nuance. In a political landscape that wants everything to be black and white, us versus them, she refuses to play that game. She sees the complexity in every issue and understands that when we recognize our shared humanity, we can create solutions that allow all of us to win. She embodies change both in her political work and in her spiritual practice.
I’m honored to call her my friend and collaborator, and I believe she’s exactly the kind of leader we need in Congress right now. Here’s our conversation about her campaign, her vision, and how her work as a healer and activist informs her run for office.
The Interview
Safrianna: Can you tell us what district you’re running in and what the key issues are facing your community?
Dr. Melissa Bird: I am running in Oregon’s Congressional District Four. The district has two main cities—Eugene and Corvallis, both with colleges—and then the rest of the district is pretty rural. One of the most interesting things I’ve discovered since I started running is that the district has been represented by someone from Eugene for nearly 60 years. Eugene is the largest city in the district, and the representation of folks in the rural part of the district is often left by the wayside.
There’s a lot of agriculture—it’s mostly coastal and farming. The fishing industry is pretty heavy. There are issues with people not being able to have access to postal services and high-speed internet.
There’s also a lot of tribal representation within the district.
And there’s a huge medical desert. There’s a profound lack of medical care available to people throughout the district.
Safrianna: So it sounds like a lot of basic quality of life stuff—what you think of when you think of the modern United States lifestyle, access to hospitals and the basics—there’s a desert there.
Dr. Melissa Bird: Exactly.
Safrianna: Tell me a little bit about you being a doctor, what you got your doctorate in, and how that frames the way you see the world and the way you’re approaching this campaign.
Dr. Melissa Bird: I have my PhD in Social Work, and I’ve always been an activist.
I’ve always been what we call in social work a macro-level practitioner. Much of my work has been around organizing for communities, helping people get increased access to healthcare and services. I started my career in homeless advocacy, advocating for homeless LGBTQ+ youth. That really informed my political career.
I started out as what we used to call a citizen lobbyist, advocating for homeless youth to be able to get emancipated from their parents in Utah. Then I got hired by Planned Parenthood to be their chief lobbyist in Utah. A lot of my political work was around reproductive justice and access to reproductive healthcare.
Having my PhD in Social Work really helps me look at communities and systems differently than most people do. I look at how decisions at the federal level, in particular, impact people all the way down to the local level. I think about how decisions at the federal level—especially now with Medicaid and Medicare, and the way we are addressing healthcare in this country—are really profoundly impactful for people throughout the district.
One of the things I talk about a lot is: what affects one of us, affects all of us.
Safrianna: Would you say healthcare is one of your top policy issues that you’re really fighting for?
Dr. Melissa Bird: Healthcare is one of my big policy issues, and then also wrapped within that is economic development, especially rural economic development. I grew up in a rural tourist town—a ski town—and our economic development was determined by how well the ski industry was doing. For a lot of folks on the coast in particular, rural economic development takes place around tourism and people visiting the coast.
Rural economic development is something that doesn’t get discussed very much, and it’s one of the things that is actually woven into healthcare. You can’t get good family practice docs if you don’t have a thriving community, because people don’t want to come in and practice in those communities. All of these things are intertwined together. How well a community is doing is really based on their rural economic development.
We also have the forestry industry—forestry is a big deal.
One of the things my opponent voted for is opening the old growth forest up to deforestation.
Safrianna: Yikes. That’s a big yikes from little old Druid me.
Dr. Melissa Bird: I think one of the things that’s really important for people to remember, especially when you’re talking about a congressional district like this, is that when we don’t pay attention to rural economic development, it’s not just about community. It’s also about the ecosystem.
How are we not just taking and taking and taking from the oceans and the forests?
Fire safety is a huge issue for people in this district because of our massive wildfires. Although our fire season has been a little chill this year—small blessings—it hasn’t been as bad as it could have been.
Safrianna: If you knew you would be able to pass a bill during your first term elected, what would you pass and why?
Dr. Melissa Bird: The federal ecosystem is changing so much. One of the things we discovered last night is that they want to use tariff money for something—I think it was with healthcare—and I was like, you can’t do that. Congress has the power of the purse.
People really don’t understand that the ability for Congress to legislate money and finances—Congress is fiscally responsible for what we do with our tax dollars. Right now, the presidential administration is taking that ability away from Congress. It’s really important for people to understand that Congress actually maintains the power of the purse. That’s laid out in the Constitution, and it’s a really important separation of powers that’s being subverted by the presidential administration.
There is one piece of legislation that I actually dreamed up years ago, and it has to do with veterans.
My husband retired early from the military—he served 14 years and then got out for various reasons. One of the things that happens when a veteran retires early is that they lose their health insurance. For a long time, we were on TRICARE, which is the insurance for families of people who are in the National Guard or part of the active duty military. When we lost that insurance, we had to go on Medicaid because the kids needed health insurance.
One of the things that people don’t understand is that it actually costs more taxpayer dollars for military families to be on Medicaid than it does for military families to be able to buy into TRICARE. One of the policies I would like to really look at is: how much money could the federal government save if we created a law where, let’s say, if you served over 10 years, you’re over 50% disabled through military-connected service, and you have been on TRICARE, that you can continue to buy into the system of TRICARE, even if you retire before 20 years?
I think we would save probably millions, if not billions, of dollars in Medicaid costs if we allowed military families that met those criteria to stay on TRICARE and maintain that fluidity of care. The other thing that happens, of course, is when you lose your health insurance, your continuity of care is gone. Your kids have to find a new pediatrician. You might not be able to get mental health services. You lose that continuity of care, which ends up costing us as taxpayers more money in the long run. That would be a very high priority for me—figuring out how we’re helping veterans maintain that continuity of care for their families.
Safrianna: That’s important. Our veterans are not treated well in this country, and they do very important service.
How do you see yourself in the world as someone who is literally going into the system to try and help make our political atmosphere and our social atmosphere better for all people, while also providing spiritual services and rituals and retreats? How do you balance these two modes, and how do they build on one another and support one another?
Dr. Melissa Bird: That’s a great question.
One of the things I actually just talked about on my retreat this last weekend is the idea that we have four bodies. We have our spiritual body, our physical body, our mental body, and our emotional body. All of those bodies are actually connected to the body of the land. We are all intricately connected together.
My campaign slogan is “a better life for all.” One of the things that’s really important to me is for people to recognize and realize that our health and wellbeing as people is connected to the health and wellbeing of our communities. When one of us is suffering, all of us are suffering. One of the reasons I’m running is that we need leaders in Congress who understand that we are all connected, and that our spiritual health and wellbeing is directly related to whether or not our communities are thriving.
For me, because I have such a deep-rooted spiritual practice—it’s not just about the Tarot or the healing or those things—I am Christian, I am a lay preacher, I am Episcopalian. I also believe that religious people understand this at a very core level, even if they are considered more evangelical or right-leaning. I think people really understand that love and compassion towards ourselves and other people is the way we create healthy communities and a better life for all.
We have to recognize our shared humanity. I think, especially right now with everything that’s happening politically, if we could really see and understand that as spiritual beings and as connected humans, we are being sold a myth that it’s us versus them, that we have to be working in conflict with each other. We have this two-party system where other parties can’t really come in and be successful because of the way we’ve structured this Republican, Democrat, us versus them system.
I actually had someone ask if I was pro-life or pro-choice. And I was like, it’s not that simple, right? I think we have bought into the lie that it is supposed to be an either-or scenario, and that’s just not how life is.
Life is not a zero-sum game. It’s a both-and game.
My hope is that more people in communities start to understand that when we recognize our shared humanity, we’re able to recognize each other, and then we start working together. Even if we don’t agree ideologically about everything, we’re able to come together to help each other.
Safrianna: That’s what I love about you—you don’t see things as black and white. You have such a sense of nuance and that all people deserve to win and be healthy and succeed in living the life of integrity for them.
Dr. Melissa Bird: I think one of the things that separates me from the people I’m running against is that I am not wealthy.
I think that too many people in Congress don’t understand—they work hard, sure, but they also have access to resources that most of us don’t. As a working mom and someone who has experienced a decline in my business, I understand how difficult it is to be raising a family in this economy. That’s something that makes me very unique, and it’s the kind of voice that we need in Congress right now.
We need people who really understand how difficult it is to be sending children off to school when we don’t know if they’re going to come home safely or not, or what they’re going to learn. Going to the grocery store is like financial acrobatics. Feeding teenagers right now is very expensive, and I think a lot of people in Congress are out of touch with that reality.
I was actually just doing a series of videos where I was like, “This is what it’s like to run for Congress.” I was cleaning the bathroom because the kids didn’t do their chores after a two-hour campaign meeting, and I’m throwing laundry in the washing machine. I think so many people in Congress just don’t have that reality anchored in, so they’re trying to make these political decisions for all of us.
That’s why the shutdown is so detrimental—people are having to work without pay.
How do you work without pay in this economy?
It’s inhumane and unconscionable that we are expecting people to continue to do that. That is what separates me, and I want people to be very clear about what separates me from the people that I’m running against. I get it. I know what people are going through right now, because I’m going through it, and that’s part of the reason I decided to run for Congress.
This is a grassroots campaign. I’m not getting donors from huge corporations. People are donating money $10, $20, $30, $40 at a time. Yes, I have to have money to run for Congress. Everybody has this idealistic idea that we’re going to get the money out of politics, and we’re not. That means that even if you’re able to donate $5 or $10, that actually makes a difference.
Safrianna: Absolutely. I’m not anywhere near the district and I donated, and I think we need more people like you. Having more people like you in the system means that more actual everyday American people who are not swimming in the dough and living easy lives and not caring about their impact—when we have more people like you in Congress from all over, we’re going to get more of the results that we want for all people.
Dr. Melissa Bird: Yeah!
Join Us in Creating Revolutionary Change
Thank you Dr. Melissa Bird for letting me interview you!
Dr. Melissa Bird is running a grassroots campaign that needs all of our support. If you believe, like I do, that we need more nuanced, compassionate, spiritually grounded leaders in Congress who understand what everyday Americans are going through, please consider supporting her campaign.
Consider Supporting Dr. Bird’s Congressional Campaign
There are plenty of ways to support. Follow her. Donate. Share with friends. Whatever you can do to help her reach a bigger audience and make more impact!
Visit her campaign website to learn more and donate.
Follow her campaign on social media: YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | BlueSky
You can also find her on Substack!
Every donation—$5, $10, $20—makes a real difference in this grassroots campaign. If you know someone who might be interested in supporting her run for office, please don’t hesitate to share.
What does it feel like for you seeing her run? I’m inspired.
Personally, I am so honored to know, collaborate with, and enjoy friendship with this incredible woman. May more people see her awesomeness! Let’s get Melissa into Congress together!
All My Love,
Safrianna Lughna, LCPC, MS
Connect with Our Collaborations
Dr. Bird and I are also collaborating on powerful spiritual activism events that weave together ancestral wisdom, revolutionary healing, and community connection.
Join Us for “Between the Veils: 8 Days of Revolutionary Awakening”
October 27 - November 3, 2025
This Samhain season, we’re hosting an 8-day portal experience that includes:
Daily live transmissions on YouTube (with exclusive replays in your inbox)
A 90-minute live Samhain ritual on Zoom (November 2nd)
Personalized oracle card pulls
Reflection prompts for deep inner work
Lifetime access to all materials
Investment: $47
This is for spiritual misfits, questioners, and revolutionaries who are ready to channel ancestral wisdom into modern healing and political power.
Join Our Full Year of Seasonal Shenanigans
Wheel of the Year Rituals 2025-2026
Starting with our Winter Solstice ritual on December 18th at 4 PM Pacific / 7 PM Eastern, Dr. Bird and I are hosting the full eight seasonal ceremonies throughout the year. These 90-minute Zoom rituals blend shadow work, joy, and transformative magic—no overthinking, no 18-step processes, just authentic connection and powerful portal work.
Single Ritual: $40
All 8 Rituals Bundle: $250 (save $70!)
All rituals include lifetime access to replays.
Learn More About the Shenanigans Here!
P.S. If you join us for the 8 Days event, there will be an exclusive further discount on the full Wheel of the Year series following. ;)
