Democratic challenger Bynum has slim lead over Republican Rep. Chavez-DeRemer in Oregon’s closest race for Congress

By Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Democratic state Rep. Janelle Bynum holds a narrow lead Tuesday night over incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer in the race for Oregon’s closest congressional district.

Bynum had a lead of 47.7% over Chavez-DeRemer’s 45.8% in results updated by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday. Additional results are expected throughout the night.

The 5th Congressional District stretches from the suburbs of Portland across the Santiam Canyon and into Bend and Redmond on the east sides of the Cascades. It’s Oregon’s most geographically diverse and closely divided congressional district, with about 34% of voters nonaffiliated with any political party, 32% registered as Democrats and 27% registered as Republicans. 

Bynum was winning in Clackamas, Deschutes and Multnomah counties, while Chavez-DeRemer’s strong performance in rural Linn and Marion counties helped her narrow the gap.

Chavez-DeRemer clinched the district by 2.1 points in 2022, while Democratic President Joe Biden won it by 9 points in 2020. Polling throughout the late summer and fall showed Chavez-DeRemer and Bynum at a tie, falling within the margin of error. 

During her first term, Chavez-DeRemer positioned herself as a moderate Republican and boasted often of having the most bipartisan record of Oregon’s congressional delegation. Critics accused her of supporting extreme factions of her party, including by endorsing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and voting for Mike Johnson for speaker of the House. Johnson visited Oregon twice to stump for her, with a $500-per-plate breakfast fundraiser in August and an October rally. 

Democrats in the district overwhelmingly opted for Bynum, who twice defeated Chavez-DeRemer in legislative elections, over 2022 Democratic nominee Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the May primary. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, personally urged Bynum to enter the race, and national Democratic groups backed her primary campaign.

The race is one of the most expensive congressional matchups in Oregon’s history: By mid-October, Bynum had raised more than $6.4 million, Chavez-DeRemer, nearly $5.7 million, and other political action committees committed millions more. 

Chavez-DeRemer touted her bipartisan record and unusually long list of labor endorsements. While Oregon’s large public sector unions, including Service Employees International Union Local 503, the Oregon Education Association and the ​​American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations back Bynum, the state’s largest private sector union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, gave both Bynum and Chavez-DeRemer its “greenlight” stamp, indicating that both candidates’ values align with the union’s. Chavez-DeRemer was endorsed by about 20 unions, mostly smaller local unions representing public safety and tradespeople.

She and her allies also criticized Bynum’s record on public safety. Bynum served as chair of the House Judiciary Committee in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and she led legislative efforts to pass a suite of police reform measures in 2021. Most of those laws passed with wide bipartisan support, but police organizations have since blasted them as weakening their ability to enforce laws. 

Bynum, who has served in the House since 2017, referred frequently to her election victories over Chavez-DeRemer in 2016 and 2018 and promised to beat her a third time. She touted legislative victories, including leading Oregon’s efforts to pass incentives for the semiconductor industry and compete for federal funding. 

She also centered her campaign around abortion rights. While Oregon and Vermont do more to protect abortion access than all other states, Democrats including Bynum have warned that protection may be threatened if Republicans pass a national abortion ban through Congress. Bynum spoke frequently about her 22-year-old daughter, who is deciding where to attend graduate school based in part on where her reproductive rights will be protected, and pledged to support legislation restoring a national right to abortion. She also sought to tie Chavez-DeRemer to Trump, referring to the Republican congresswoman as “standing by her man.”