U.S. Rep. Chavez-DeRemer concedes defeat in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District
PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Oregon, conceded the race for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District to her Democratic challenger Oregon state Rep. Janelle Bynum after The Associated Press called the race for Bynum on Thursday morning.
In a statement, Chavez-DeRemer said she’s grateful for the opportunity to serve as Oregonians’ voice in Congress. And while it wasn’t the outcome she hoped for, she’s proud of what she helped accomplish.
“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,” she said.
Bynum had previously defeated Chavez-DeRemer when they faced off in state legislative elections.
Chavez-DeRemer narrowly won the congressional seat in 2022, which was the first election held in the 5th 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 the fast-growing central Oregon city of Bend on the other side of the Cascade Range. 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.
