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Janelle Bynum, a former Oregon legislator from Happy Valley, has declared victory in the race for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District.
Janelle Bynum, shown here speaking during a campaign event, has won the race for Oregon's 5th Congressional District.
Bryce Dole / OPB
“I am beyond honored that my neighbors have chosen me to be the next congresswoman for Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District,” Bynum said in a statement Friday after The Oregonian/OregonLive called the race for her. “My work has always been a love letter to Oregon’s children. I ran for office to make their futures brighter, and I’ll do just that in Washington — for their education, for their reproductive freedoms, for their job opportunities, and so much more.”
If the results hold, Bynum would become Oregon’s first Black member of Congress, flipping the district in one of the nation’s most high-profile elections and helping Democrats maintain their increasingly slim hope of controlling the U.S. House next year.
As of Friday morning, Bynum was beating incumbent Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer with about 48% of the vote compared to the incumbent’s 45%. She was leading by 8,575 votes.
Bynum’s lead comes as the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives remains in play, with a handful of races that have yet to be decided in this year’s election. But the race would be a significant win for the Democratic party nationwide as it reels from losing control of the White House and the U.S. Senate this week. And it would continue a trend of this election cycle: The Pacific Northwest has been a rare sign of life for the Democratic Party, with statewide candidate wins in Oregon and Washington and another big House race, Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, going to incumbent Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
At a press conference at her campaign headquarters in Clackamas on Friday afternoon, a handful of Bynum’s supporters hugged, clapped and gathered around Bynum.
“It’s not lost on me that I am one generation removed from segregation,” Bynum said. “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 from Oregon.”
This would be the third time Bynum has defeated Chavez-DeRemer in political races, having beaten her twice before in Oregon House races. Asked if Chavez-DeRemer had conceded, Bynum said: “She didn’t in 2016. She didn’t in 2018. And I haven’t heard from her in 2024.”
Chavez-DeRemer’s campaign did not return a request for comment Friday.
Bynum’s supporters described her victory as a glimmer of hope in an otherwise grim week for Democrats across America.
“When I learned that Janelle Bynum had won, it was a ray of sunshine in a very dark time,” said Jordan Hiller, a volunteer.
And they called her victory a milestone in Oregon, a state with a long history of what they describe as systemic racism.
“The history of Oregon is pretty recent and pretty terrible,” said Marcia Schneider, an activist for the Democratic Party in Multnomah County. “And the fact that we can do this shows forward progress, and that’s really good.”
The race drew in millions of dollars in campaign contributions and became the 11th most expensive U.S. House campaign in the country this year with more than $26 million in outside spending, according to the nonprofit Open Secrets, which tracks outside spending in political races.
Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, which stretches from suburban Portland south to Albany and east to Bend, was held for seven terms by Democrat Kurt Schrader, and President Joe Biden won here in 2020. Two years ago, Chavez-DeRemer flipped the seat for Republicans, winning by just two percentage points.
Bynum is a mother of four who worked as an engineer and owned four McDonald’s restaurants. She served in the legislature as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, helping pass a police reform package and a bill to boost the local semiconductor industry.
In Congress, Bynum has said she would push for many of the policies of the Democratic Party nationwide, enacting stricter gun laws, lowering housing and drug costs and seeking to curb climate change.
State Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat from Clackamas County, has won the 5th Congressional District seat.
Courtesy of
Bynum ran with the backing of most of Oregon’s top Democrats, including Gov. Tina Kotek, as well as powerful political groups like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats national campaign area.
She outraised Chavez-DeRemer, with more than $5.8 million in total contributions, much of which came in during the final months of the race. Bynum spent much of her campaign seeking to tie the incumbent to President-elect Donald Trump, who she endorsed, and the fall of abortion rights across the country.
The 5th Congressional District is a true swing seat that stretches across urban, suburban and rural communities in Oregon. In unofficial returns, Bynum was winning in Clackamas, Deschutes and Multnomah counties, and Chavez-DeRemer was leading in Marion and Linn counties.
“The work is far from over,’ Bynum said. “It’s time that Oregon Five is represented by a true member of their community, someone who shows up when they’re needed and stands up for them even when the problems are hard.”
Votes are still being counted in a number of swing districts elsewhere in the country that could decide which party controls the U.S. House.