A group dedicated to electing conservative women to Congress paid for advertisements supporting an Oregon Democratic candidate before she was defeated in the May primary.
The Winning For Women Action Fund, which has previously endorsed and raised money supporting U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s congressional bid, paid $550,000 for advertisements in May supporting the congresswoman’s would-be opponent, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who lost to Oregon Rep. Janelle Bynum.
The new filings, disclosed through the Federal Election Commission Monday, shed light on Democrats’ concerns about GOP meddling in the election and suggest that Republicans saw McLeod-Skinner as the preferred candidate to face the congresswoman. Chavez-DeRemer narrowly defeated McLeod-Skinner in the 2022 election.
FILE - Jamie McLeod-Skinner, right, at the Deschutes County Democrats watch party in Bend, Ore., May 21, 2024. McLeod-Skinner lost the Democratic primary election to state Rep. Janelle Bynum.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB
The race for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District is among the most hotly contested in the country. It’s one of 16 seats held by Republicans in districts President Joe Biden won in 2020.
In 2022, the race was decided by just two percentage points, but now the stakes are higher. The winner could decide which party controls Congress, all but ensuring a large amount of money and influence will pour into the race in the coming months.
The advertisements, published in the run-up to the May primary, were from a weeks-old political action committee called Health Equity Now, which made videos supporting McLeod-Skinner’s views on health care, including fighting insurance companies bringing free Medicare to all Americans, as first reported by AP.
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The group quickly drew attention from Bynum’s campaign, partly because the firm that bought the ads has largely been employed by Republicans in the past, and the group’s treasurer appeared to have worked on a political committee supporting Georgia Republican Herschel Walker’s failed campaign for U.S. Senate in 2022.
McLeod-Skinner clarified in May that she didn’t know anything about the group, but Bynum’s campaign spokesperson said in a statement at the time that McLeod-Skinner was “House Republicans’ dream opponent because they know they can beat her.”
But because the group was only recently formed, it didn’t need to disclose its donors until after the election, leaving the public in the dark until this week’s filings.
Winning For Women, which did not immediately return an email seeking comment, has endorsed more than a dozen women for Congress this year, including Chavez-DeRemer. Previously, it raised millions of dollars as the first super PAC dedicated to electing conservative women.
The group is “building an infrastructure that will allow right-of-center women leaders to succeed in their pursuit of leadership opportunities, and working to advance free-market principles and a strong national defense,” according to its website.
Federal rules prohibit members of Congress from coordinating with super PACs during campaigns.
Chavez-DeRemer’s campaign declined to comment Wednesday. In May 2023, she thanked Winning For Women for their endorsement in a tweet.
“I am honored to serve with other strong women in Congress,” she wrote on the social media app now called X.
Bynum has defeated Chavez-DeRemer twice before in Oregon House races. Now they’re facing off in a congressional district that spans from the Portland suburbs to Bend.
So far, Chavez-DeRemer has raised $3.3 million in total contributions, compared to Bynum’s $2.4 million. Bynum raised $1.3 million in May and June while Chavez-DeRemer raised $740,000 during that time.
Aaron Britt, a spokesman, issued a statement on the congresswoman’s fundraising, saying she “had her strongest quarter of the cycle so far, demonstrating that her track record of delivering bipartisan results for the 5th District is resonating with Oregonians as support for her reelection continues to grow.”
“With a war chest more than twice the size of her opponent’s, the momentum is on Lori’s side and puts her in an undeniably solid position for another victory this November,” Britt wrote.
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Bynum’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This isn’t the only race this year in which large amounts of outside spending has drawn attention.
In the Democratic race for Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, a political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, spent millions of dollars attacking candidate Susheela Jayapal, a Multnomah County Commissioner, and supporting Maxine Dexter, a physician and state lawmaker who won that primary election.