Senator Fred Girod

Fred Frank Girod, born in 1951, is an American politician and dentist from Oregon. He is a member of the Oregon State Senate representing the 9th district, which covers the mid-Willamette Valley. He previously served as the Senate minority leader.

Girod was born in Salem, Oregon. He graduated from Stayton High School in Stayton, Oregon. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, a DMD from Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.

He has been a practicing dentist for 26 years, and served in the Oregon House of Representatives in the early 1990s, chairing the Rules Committee. He ran for the U.S. Congress in 1994, but lost in the primary to Jim Bunn. Girod then served on the Stayton City Council.

He was selected by Marion and Linn County Republicans to run again for the House in 2006, in district 17, following then-representative Jeff Kropf’s sudden departure from the 2006 election. He won that election, defeating Democrat Dan Thackaberry, and was appointed in 2008 to succeed Senator Roger Beyer of District 9 upon his resignation. He was sworn in during January 2008, and was re-elected in November 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2016.

In 2019, Girod refused to show up for work in order to prevent a vote on a cap-and-trade proposal that would dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions. On June 20, 2019, all eleven Republican members of the Oregon Senate, including Girod, participated in the 2019 Oregon Senate Republican walkouts. Instead of showing up at the Oregon State Capitol, they went into hiding or fled the state. The Senate holds 30 seats, but one seat was vacant due to the death of Republican Jackie Winters. Without the Republican senators, the remaining 18 Democratic state senators could not reach a quorum of 20 to hold a vote.