Democratic Rep. Bynum unseats GOP’s Chavez-DeRemer in Oregon | Elections
Democratic Oregon state Rep. Janelle Bynum will win Oregon’s 5th District race for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Associated Press projected Thursday. Incumbent Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., immediately conceded.
The latest tally from the Oregon Secretary of State’s website gave Bynum a 2.48% lead — a margin that has held relatively steady for more than a week as the final mailed-in ballots arrived and were counted.
“I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity I had to serve as Oregonians’ voice in Congress,” Chavez-DeRemer said in an email that went out nine minutes after the AP call. “I’ve always been passionate about helping improve my community through public service, and it’s been a sincere honor to do so over the last 24 years – from Happy Valley’s Parks Committee, City Council, Mayor, and all the way to the halls of the U.S. House of Representatives. I’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you to my family, my supporters, and my team, who have been by my side through it all.
“Although this isn’t the outcome we had hoped for, I’m proud of what we accomplished together. I hope Ms. Bynum will follow the example I have set over the past two years and serve as a pragmatic, thoughtful, and bipartisan leader who will work with the Trump administration to address housing affordability, improve public safety, and secure the border,” Chavez-DeRemer continued.
Bynum declared victory last Friday after The Oregonian projected her as the winner.
This will be Bynum’s first term as a member of the U.S. House. The AP projects that Republicans will maintain House control and have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, giving President-elect Donald Trump a mostly clear path to enact his policies for at least the first two years of his final term.
Bynum will be Oregon’s first-ever Black member of Congress.
Chavez-DeRemer narrowly won the seat in 2022, which was the first election held in the district after its boundaries were significantly redrawn following the 2020 census.
The district now encompasses disparate regions spanning metro Portland and its wealthy and working-class suburbs, as well as rural agricultural and mountain communities and fast-growing Bend. Registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by about 25,000 in the district, but unaffiliated voters represent the largest constituency.
A small part of the district is in Multnomah County, where a ballot box just outside the county elections office in Portland was set on fire by an incendiary device about a week before the election, damaging three ballots. Authorities said that enough material from the incendiary device was recovered to show that the Portland fire was also connected to two other ballot drop box fires in neighboring Vancouver, Washington, one of which occurred on the same day as the Portland fire and damaged hundreds of ballots.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
