The battle for the 5th Congressional District promises to be one of the most competitive in the country this November, after Republicans flipped the seat in 2022 for the first time in a quarter century.
Both women seeking the Democratic nomination are strong candidates. But Democrats looking for their best chance to beat Republican incumbent Lori Chavez-DeRemer should cast their ballots for the person who has done it twice before in state races – Janelle Bynum.
Bynum, 49, was first elected in 2016 to represent Happy Valley and the surrounding area in the Oregon House, beating out former Happy Valley Mayor Chavez-DeRemer for the seat. (She beat her again in a 2018 rematch.) Educated as an engineer, Bynum and her husband own four McDonalds’ restaurants, giving the Democratic caucus a much-needed perspective of a small business owner who lives daily with the questions of how to cover costs and comply with mandates.
Bynum has also been one of the only Black legislators in the House during her tenure, but as she noted in our endorsement interview, being in the minority – politically, racially or otherwise – has not stopped her from being effective. In the year following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, she led the House Committee on Equitable Policing, working with Republicans and law enforcement as well as Democrats to pass a package of bipartisan police accountability bills. Last year, as co-chair of the Legislature’s joint semiconductor committee, she helped steer passage of a bill that provided funding and eased access to industrial land to help Oregon companies land federal dollars through the CHIPS Act. The legislation was not popular with environmentalists but is already paying off with Intel’s recent announcement of an $8.5 billion grant from the federal government. Bynum’s focus on encouraging economic opportunity and her understanding of the “kitchen table” fiscal pressures households feel help make her a trusted champion in her district.
And she’s been willing to challenge her own party’s leadership, most clearly when she considered a bid to unseat then House Speaker Tina Kotek from that position prior to the 2021 session. While she ultimately dropped the plan, she secured greater support for legislators of color. The effort was also notable not only because Oregon Democrats rarely show such breaks publicly, but because she was willing to go up against the most powerful Democrat in Oregon politics. Kotek, now governor, has endorsed Bynum for this race.
Her competition, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, is an impressive candidate in her own right. The 56-year-old attorney who has served on numerous boards and in local government positions won the Democratic primary in 2022 and was our pick in the general election. She’s both well-steeped in a wide range of issues before Congress and is not the extremist that Bynum and others have argued. Rather, she comes at issues with a focus on establishing common ground and using common language – an approach that seeks to minimize division, not exacerbate it.
But she does not have the legislative wins, key alliances, party independence and track record of pragmatism that Bynum has built. Whoever secures the Democratic nomination to face Chavez-DeRemer, will need to appeal far beyond the Democratic party to win over the district’s non-affiliated voters – who outnumber both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats’ best option is to bet on Bynum succeeding a third time.
-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
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