Tech Executive From Bend Enters Democratic Primary in 5th Congressional District

Matthew Davie, a tech executive from Bend, filed Jan. 18 to run for the Democratic nomination in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District.

Davie joins three candidates who have been in the race for months: state Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Happy Valley), 2022 nominee Jamie McLeod-Skinner, and Metro Council President Lynn Peterson.

Davie, whose Linkedin bio says he’s a former executive at various Bay Area tech startups, has most recently been chief strategy officer at Kiva, a nonprofit tech company that seeks to provide financial services to people around the world who don’t have bank accounts. (Davie could not be reached for comment.)

He has the look of a candidate who could bring resources to the race. Property records show that Davie, who earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Stanford University, bought an $830,000 home in Bend in 2018 and traded up to a $2.2 million property late last year. State campaign finance records show just one transaction in Davie’s name in the past, however: a $250 contribution to a Bend Democrat running for the Legislature last year.

Davie joins a strong field of candidates chasing the opportunity to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRimer (R-Ore.), who defeated McLeod-Skinner in 2022. National pundits expect District 5 to be a key race this year as Democrats try to overcome Republicans’ narrow majority in the House.

Democrats have about a 5% voter registration advantage in the district.

Although it is unclear whether Davie can generate support, he lives in the district’s second-largest concentration of voters, Deschutes County, which is McLeod-Skinner’s base. She built a strong following there in an unsuccessful challenge to longtime Republican incumbent Greg Walden (now retired) in Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District in 2018.

More recently, WW and others have reported on complaints about McLeod-Skinner from former campaign staffers.