Ben Cannon (born 1976) is an American educator and policymaker from Oregon. He was elected in 2006 to the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 65,000. The House meets in the west wing of the ...

, representing the state's 46th District, which covers portions of southeast and northeast

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

. He won re-election in 2008 and 2010. In 2011, he resigned to become the Education Policy Advisor to Governor John Kitzhaber. In 2013, he was appointed to lead Oregon's new Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

Early life

A graduate of West Linn High School in West Linn, Oregon, Cannon was educated at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he edited the campus newspaper and co-authored ''Walking Historic Downtown St. Louis'' (2000). He won a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

to Oxford University in 1999, and went to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. There he studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics before taking a graduate degree in Comparative and International Education. Cannon returned to Oregon to become a middle school teacher at the Arbor School of Arts and Sciences in Tualatin.

Political career

Cannon was first elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2006. He served as chair of the House Environment and Water Committee in 2009-2010 and as its co-chair in 2011. In 2011, he teamed with Rep. Vicki Berger to pass a sweeping expansion of the iconic Oregon Bottle Bill. He was also responsible for successful legislation promoting car-sharing, clean fuels, and online voter registration. In 2009, he gained notoriety for proposing a major increase to the Oregon beer tax, which is among the nation's lowest. Cannon was distinctive as the only member of Oregon's Legislature who refused to accept campaign contributions from political action committees. A
online video
promoted his effort to fund his 2010 re-election campaign by receiving $20 contributions from more than 1000 individuals.

Education leadership

In August 2011, Cannon resigned as State Representative when Governor John Kitzhaber appointed him as his education policy adviser. Cannon helped shepherd the state's efforts to win a waiver from No Child Left Behind and was an architect of an overhaul of Oregon's higher education system in 2013. In October, 2013, he was appointed Executive Director for the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, a newly created position that is the state's top higher education official.

External links

Project Vote Smart – Representative Ben Cannon (OR)
profile *''Follow the Money'' – Ben Cannon
2006
campaign contributions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cannon, Ben 1976 births Living people American Rhodes Scholars Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Members of the Oregon House of Representatives Politicians from Portland, Oregon People from West Linn, Oregon Washington University in St. Louis alumni 21st-century American politicians Schoolteachers from Oregon