Janelle Bynum, Backed By National Democrats, Wins Oregon House Primary

Oregon state Rep. Janelle Bynum won the Democratic primary in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District on Tuesday, setting up what is likely to be one of the most contentious House races in the country.

Bynum, who is Oregon’s only Black state lawmaker and would be the state’s first-ever Black member of Congress, will now take on Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.).

Ousting Chavez-DeRemer, who, last cycle, flipped a seat that President Joe Biden carried by nine percentage points, is a top priority for House Democrats with their sights on retaking the House. Bynum has twice defeated Chavez-DeRemer, a former mayor of Happy Valley, in races for the Oregon state House of Representatives.

With that in mind, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) recruited Bynum to run, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee endorsed her against another candidate, and super PACs like the centrist Mainstream Democrats spent heavily on her behalf.

“In less than two years in Congress, Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been engulfed by the extremism that has taken hold of the Republican Party,” Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson for the DCCC, said in a statement ahead of the primary. “Luckily, voters in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District have a better option in Janelle Bynum ― an Oregon state legislator with a proventrack record of delivering results, an extensive coalition and a clear path to flipping” the seat. 

Bynum, a restaurant owner from the Portland suburbs, defeated progressive Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a small business owner, trained attorney and former civil servant.

McLeod-Skinner, who hails from a rural part of central Oregon just outside the district’s eastern boundaries, was the Democratic nominee last cycle and lost to Chavez-DeRemer by two percentage points. She had unseated centrist Rep. Kurt Schrader in a heated Democratic primary that shined a light on Schrader ties to the pharmaceutical industry and efforts to water down Medicare drug price negotiation.

In the general election, however, Republicans succeeded in painting McLeod-Skinner as a left-wing radical with ties to groups that are hostile to law enforcement. She has since faced accusations of verbal abuse and physical intimidation from former aides, which she has denied.

Republicans plan to use a similar playbook against Bynum, whom they dubbed “Janelle ‘Prison Break’ Bynum,” for criminal justice reform legislation that she allegedly advanced.

“In Salem, Prison Break Bynum built an extensive record as an extremist hellbent on emptying prisons, decriminalizing fentanyl and unleashing criminals,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Ben Petersen said in a statement.

For their part, Democrats plan to depict Chavez-DeRemer, a partisan conservative masquerading as a moderate, noting that she celebrated the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning a federal right to abortion.

“From voting to restrict access to reproductive care and then lying about her record back home, to proudly re-endorsing Donald Trump and gutting funding for critical services that Oregonians rely on most, Lori Chavez-DeRemer has quickly proven herself to be a part of the foundational problem in Congress ― not the solution,” Gottlieb said after results came in Tuesday night.