Janelle Bynum, Backed By National Democrats, Wins Oregon House Primary

Oregon state Rep. Janelle Bynum won the Democratic primary in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District on Tuesday, setting up what is likely to be one of the most contentious House races in the country.

Bynum, who is Oregon’s only Black state lawmaker and would be the state’s first-ever Black member of Congress, will now take on Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.).

Ousting Chavez-DeRemer, who, last cycle, flipped a seat that President Joe Biden carried by nine percentage points, is a top priority for House Democrats with their sights on retaking the House. Bynum has twice defeated Chavez-DeRemer, a former mayor of Happy Valley, in races for the Oregon state House of Representatives.

With that in mind, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) recruited Bynum to run, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee endorsed her against another candidate, and super PACs like the centrist Mainstream Democrats spent heavily on her behalf.

“In less than two years in Congress, Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been engulfed by the extremism that has taken hold of the Republican Party,” Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson for the DCCC, said in a statement ahead of the primary. “Luckily, voters in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District have a better option in Janelle Bynum ― an Oregon state legislator with a proven track recordof delivering results, an extensive coalition and a clear path to flipping” the seat.

Bynum, a restaurant owner from the Portland suburbs, defeated progressive Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a small business owner, trained attorney and former civil servant.

McLeod-Skinner, who hails from a rural part of central Oregon just outside the district’s eastern boundaries, was the Democratic nominee last cycle and lost to Chavez-DeRemer by