Republican incumbent Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Democratic challenger Janelle Bynum are at each other’s throats in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District race
At recent debates on KOIN TV in Portland and KTVZ in Bend, each candidate asserted that their opponent couldn’t be trusted. Bynum worked hard to tie Chavez-DeRemer to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and the conservative Republicans in the House. Chavez-DeRemer, in turn, attacked Bynum for supporting Measure 110, the drug decriminalization measure later amended by House Bill 4002 in the face of public backlash against the measure.
No question, Bynum is a flaming liberal. In September, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries showed up in Portland to bolster her campaign. Par for the course, he accused Chavez-DeRemer of being aligned with extreme MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump., who Democrats portray as an imminent threat to democracy.
In contrast, Chavez-DeRemer works hard to portray herself as a moderate. She was ranked the 29th most bipartisan House member, and the most bipartisan Oregon member of the House, in an analysis released in May 2024 by the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. But she has endorsed Trump’s return to the White House, has praised the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and has voted for a number of bills critics claim support the MAGA agenda.
The high-profile race is being run in a swing district created when the Legislature changed the district’s boundaries in 2021so it included a presumably more Democratic Bend. The race is now one of just a few that could decide who controls the U.S. House of Representatives.
So what to do if you are in the middle?
If Trump wins the White House, a vote for Chavez-DeRemer increases the likelihood that the House will stay in Republican hands. The Democrats now have a majority in the Senate but current thinking is that the Republicans have a high probability of retaking control with a net gain of two seats or by winning the presidential election along with a net gain of one seat.
A particularly endangered Democrat is Senator Jon Tester of Montana, who trails his Republican challenger, Tim Sheehy, a wealthy Republican businessman. Polls suggest he’s toast because of the changing demographics of the state. Republicans are also expected to flip West Virginia — where Joe Manchin is retiring- in the face of competition from Republican Governor Jim Justice .
Of course, Democrats are still hopeful they can hold onto critical Senate seats in states like Ohio and Arizona and there are signs of weakness in Republican Senator Ted Cruz’ s race against Democratic challenger Colin Allred.
But if Trump wins, and the Republicans can hold on to the House and retake the Senate, that clean sweep would give Trump and his MAGA allies an opportunity to govern with impunity. If that’s not what you want, your best choice might be to vote for Bynum , even if you lean conservative, to increase the likelihood the Democrats will at least control the House and be in a position to block the more unpalatable elements of Trump’s MAGA agenda.
Tricky, isn’t it?
ThinkingOregon 
I have found Lori Chavez-DeRemer responsive to critical issues of Clackamas County, like the effect of Tolling the I-205 Abernethy Bridge and what it would do to people’s lives and the economy if it were allowed. I know that Janelle Bynum was part of those who have supported Tolling and appeared to have no idea of the consequences. She has been a vote for the extreme positions of the Portland Majority that has controlled the legislature. She has been part of that leadership of far too extreme Portland thinking. I work on helping Veterans, and I would never think of going to Bynum for help, and DeRemer completely understood our wants and needs. I work on issues of low- and middle-income families that cannot make ends meet. This inflation has been a killer for fixed income seniors that was created by the Democratic DC Administration, and she just does think independently and follows state and national Democratic Party line on all votes, even if it wrong, and that scares me. Pragmatism is important to me, and I have tested DeRemer and her staff on progressive programing to save lives, and she got an “A Grade”. On supporting our police, DeRemer can be counted on and is not mired down in a past, with issues that do not exist Oregon’s Congressional District 5. All of these divisive campaign adds we see on TV by both sides are terrible. The Pro-Abortion Democratic Party Majority Caucus appears to have bought and paid for having Janelle Bynum’s vote and this would be consistent with her previous voting pattern. Women rights and abortion are not an issue in Oregon, but she and her party want to tell other states what is right for them. Teh Republican Party and Trump do not own Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and her independent voting pattern proves that. The US House Republican Majority has those on its Extreme Right, and they may make up 5 or 6, but that is not like the Democratic US House minority, which has close to half of its caucus in support of extreme positions of tax and spend, where Benefit Analysis and Return on Investment are not part of the discussion. Critical Thinking requires weighting out the pluses and minuses, and what I have seen to this point, Lori Chevez-DeRemer has my vote, I want her independence.
I worked for Congress during my career. I understand your points, but I also know that leadership drives the agenda in Congress. I’m a conservative, but if Trump wins and the R’s take over the House and Senate, I’m worried that the extreme MAGA agenda will undermine our liberties, drive an even more insane deficit and decimate the civil service.
My wife and I have commercial and residential property that we lease in Portland/Multnomah County. What was once a great place to live and work, (where I was raised) has become more than problematic and 90% of its decline and lawlessness come from decades of extreme left leaning politics and programming. Businesses are questioning if it would not be smart to relocate out of Portland. Measure 110 came out of Portland and was backed by Janelle Bynum and that type of thinking has led to people being killed. The taxes and fees on top of all of the associated other cost of doing business in Portland/Multnomah County to fund a Socialistic Agenda, that accomplishes so very scary. Just living in Portland/Multnomah County is difficult for the great majority. We see Transportation Planning and decision making where TriMet is losing maybe $10 Million per month, supplying transit to less than 1% of the trips generated. Read TriMet’s performance reports and the left leaning agenda that does not solve problems. TriMet is not considered safe for 99% of its potential users. Potholes exist in their roads, and what they do is laughable and most often again solving little or nothing. Janelle Bynum has been in the Portland Democratic Leadership and key person in advancing that far left thinking and extreme failed politics of Portland. We don’t need that political agenda to spill-over into Congressional District 5. In Clackamas County. We fight for programming where people learn to stand on their own feet and everyone is treated equally, period. We are not mired down in race, religion and sexual orientation and we just help people in need to get on their feet and support themselves. To me it is this glaring difference, between the left leaning agenda and politics of Portland and the common sense of a self-reliant people of Clackamas County. To me, this difference in what failed Portland/Multnomah County priorities have been that have been advanced by Janelle Bynum and the priorities and successes Lori Chavez DeRemer and what they bring home for us.