Democrat Janelle Bynum has made history by flipping Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, becoming the state’s first Black member of Congress. Bynum, a state representative supported by national Democratic organizations, defeated freshman Republican U.S. Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
This marks a significant loss for Republicans, who had turned the district red for the first time in nearly 25 years during the 2022 midterm elections.
“It’s not lost on me that I am one generation removed from segregation. 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 in Oregon,” Bynum said during a press conference after the win. “But it took all of us working together to flip this seat, and we delivered a win for Oregon. We believed in a vision and we didn’t take our feet off the gas until we accomplished our goals.”
On Thursday, the day The Associated Press declared Janelle Bynum the winner, Lori Chavez-DeRemer conceded the race.
“I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity I had to serve as Oregonians’ voice in Congress,” Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement. “Although this isn’t the outcome we had hoped for, I’m proud of what we accomplished together.”
The Cook Political Report had classified the race as a GOP toss-up, indicating that either party had a strong chance of winning. This was not the first time Janelle Bynum and Lori Chavez-DeRemer faced off; Bynum had previously defeated Chavez-DeRemer in state legislative elections.
Chavez-DeRemer narrowly captured the seat in 2022, the first election after the district’s boundaries were significantly redrawn following the 2020 census. The newly redrawn district now spans a diverse range of regions, including metropolitan Portland, affluent and working-class suburbs, rural agricultural and mountain areas, and the rapidly growing city of Bend in central Oregon, located on the other side of the Cascade Range. While registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 25,000, unaffiliated voters make up the largest bloc in the district.
A week before the election, an incendiary device set fire to a ballot drop box outside the Multnomah County elections office in Portland, damaging three ballots. Authorities recovered material linking the device to two additional ballot box fires in neighboring Vancouver, Washington. One of those incidents, which occurred the same day as the Portland fire, damaged hundreds of ballots.
