Bynum declares victory in race

CLACKAMAS — Surrounded by a hastily assembled group of campaign volunteers, Democrat Janelle Bynum declared victory in Oregon’s closest congressional race.

The Democratic state representative is the first Black congresswoman from a state that banned Black people from living within its boundaries when it joined the union.

That history was on Bynum’s mind as she gave brief remarks at her campaign headquarters Friday afternoon, November 8. 

“It’s not lost on me that I am one generation removed from segregation. It’s not lost on me that we’re making history, and I am proud to be the first, but not the last, Black member of Congress in Oregon,” she said Friday afternoon. “I’m proud to be a groundbreaker because of what that means, not just for my children, but for all young people across our state to see that change is possible, and that when something big has never been done before, that it might just be because you haven’t accomplished it yet.”

The Bynum win over Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who herself made history in 2022 as one of Oregon’s first Latina members of Congress, flipped the 5th District back to Democratic control after 14-year former Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader lost in the 2022 primary to Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who subsequently lost the general election by 2.1 points to Chavez-DeRemer. 

In 2020, Democratic President Joe Biden won the district by 9 points. It has more Democratic voters than Republicans – nearly 32 percent to 27 precent – and is one of Oregon’s most geographically diverse, stretching across Linn County, most of Clackamas and Deschutes counties, and parts of Multnomah and Marion counties.

The election results are bittersweet for Oregon’s Democrats, including the campaign volunteers who flanked Bynum at her victory press conference. Portland resident Jeff Kidder, a volunteer with the progressive group Indivisible who spent his weekends knocking on doors for Bynum, said he and fellow volunteers are grieving the presidential results and trying to plan how they’ll protect anyone negatively affected by Trump administration policies, but first they’re celebrating that Bynum will go to D.C. to represent them.  

Bynum was an engineer before moving to Oregon, her husband’s home state, about 20 years ago. She couldn’t find an engineering job in the state in the wake of the dot-com bubble burst, and she eventually joined her husband in taking over his mother’s McDonald’s franchise. As she talked to more of her neighbors before she first ran for the state House in 2016, she said she heard from people with similar stories of not making it in Oregon.

“That’s what propelled me to first run for office, to make sure that everyone’s voices were heard at the table,” she said. “So at the end of the day, I’m still an engineer. I still take apart complex issues and put together solutions. I still try to figure out how to do what others thought was impossible, and that’s why I entered public service, to solve hard problems.”

Among Oregon’s U.S. races, the 5th District has been the most closely watched, with the candidates raising more than $12 million through mid-October and millions more spent by interest groups to get them elected. National Democrats and Republicans both considered the race among a few nationwide that would determine control of the House. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named Bynum to its competitive “Red to Blue” program, throwing its support behind her in the primary.

During the campaign, Bynum 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 Republicans might try to 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.” 

Chavez-DeRemer, on the other hand, 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.

Republished under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.