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State Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Happy Valley) declared victory today over her opponent, Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District.
“I am beyond honored that my neighbors have chosen me to be the next congresswoman for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District,” Bynum said. “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.”
Bynum’s win marks the third time she has defeated Chavez-DeRemer, having twice bested the former Happy Valley mayor in state legislative races in 2016 and 2018.
Bynum’s victory and the triumph of Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District (which includes Clark and other counties) mark rare bright spots for Democrats in this week’s federal elections, which resulted in Democrats losing the White House and the U.S. Senate, and very likely failing to take back control of the House. It also shows the leftward drift of Clackamas County, long the most conservative of Oregon’s three largest counties.
Clackamas County, which accounts for more voters in the 5th Congressional District than any other county, delivered for Bynum. (The district includes 227,041 voters in Clackamas County, 144,491 in Deschutes, 99,985 in Linn, 39,415 in Marion, 38,331 in Multnomah, and 18 in Jefferson, for a November total of 549,181.)
After Clackamas County added more votes to its tally at 4:30 pm on Friday, Bynum led Chavez-DeRemer there by 10,092 votes, or 6.6 percentage points—matching almost exactly the 6-point voter registration advantage Democrats enjoy in the county and just about equal to Bynum’s overall lead across all counties in the district, 10,344 votes as of 5 pm Friday.
Other Clackamas County races showed a wide variety of outcomes.
Democratic nominee for attorney general Dan Rayfield, for instance, narrowly defeated Republican Will Lathrop by less than 3 points in the county (Rayfield’s margin was 8.11 points statewide, including Clackamas).
In the nonpartisan county chair’s race, however, former Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts defeated incumbent Tootie Smith, a staunch Republican, by nearly 15 percentage points. That’s a remarkable turnaround from 2020, when Smith defeated Jim Bernard, a Democrat, in the May primary by 6.7 points.