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Oregon’s 5th Congressional District promises to be one of the marquee races in the battle for control of the U.S. House in November.
Newly released quarterly fundraising figures show that incumbent U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) raked in $608,000 in the first three months of this year. That’s far more than either of the Democrats hoping to challenge her in November, state Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Happy Valley), who raised $502,948, and Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who raised $194,964.
Chavez-DeRemer, a former mayor of Happy Valley, defeated McLeod-Skinner in 2022. The advantage of incumbency is that Chavez-DeRemer faces no opposition in the primary. That means she can concentrate on raising—and banking—money, without the kind of hard-fought primary that Democrats face.
Chavez-DeRemer now has $1.88 million on hand, compared to $560,821 for Bynum and $313,768 for McLeod-Skinner.
Democrats nationally have indicated they will spend heavily on whoever wins the nomination, as the Oregon Capital Chronicle first reported, but Chavez-DeRemer will have a strong head start. (Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district by about 5 percentage points.)
“The outpouring of support for Rep. Chavez-DeRemer continues with another impressive quarter powered by enthusiasm for her common-sense agenda,” Ben Petersen, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee, said. “Rep. Chavez-DeRemer has built a formidable war chest while Democrats’ eventual nominee will stagger out of the primary broke.”