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Janelle Bynum: “I’m just looking forward to moving on with a broad coalition of support and proving again and again why I’m a winner, and why I’ve been successful at beating Republican incumbent Lori Chavez-DeRemer twice”
Today, Lynn Peterson announced her withdrawal from the OR-05 Democratic primary, choosing instead to back Janelle Bynum for the chance to unseat Lori Chavez-DeRemer – giving Bynum her “enthusiastic endorsement and full support.”
Bynum is a proven Oregon state legislator, a small business owner, a mother of four, and a member of the DCCC’s highly competitive “Red to Blue” program. In previous races for the Oregon State House, Janelle has twice beaten the incumbent, Lori Chavez-DeRemer – and she’ll do it again in 2024.
The Oregon Capital Chronicle: Peterson drops out of Oregon 5th District race, endorses Bynum in Democratic primary
Julia Shumway | January 20, 2024
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Metro Council President Lynn Peterson is dropping out of the Democratic primary in one of the nation’s most competitive congressional districts and throwing her support behind state Rep. Janelle Bynum.
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“Over the course of the last eight months since I declared, almost 1,500 people invested in this campaign to protect and strengthen our democracy,” Peterson continued. “I want to thank each one of them for their commitment and investment and ask them to support Representative Bynum because working together we can take back the U.S. Congress.”
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The 5th District, which stretches from Bend to the outskirts of Portland, is one of just 22 races across the country that the Cook Political Report classifies as tossups that could go to one party or another. Chavez-DeRemer won by 2.1 percentage points and just under 7,300 votes in 2022, and Democrats hope to recapture the district this year.
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About 25,000 more Democrats than Republicans are registered to vote in the district, and those numbers as well as anticipated higher turnout for a presidential election year have Democrats feeling bullish about their chances.
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Bynum told the Capital Chronicle she appreciated Peterson’s career in public service and the work she put into the campaign and standing up for Democratic values. She said undecided primary voters should consider that President Joe Biden won the district by 9 points and McLeod-Skinner lost it by two points, a “pretty significant” 11-point swing.
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“I’m just looking forward to moving on with a broad coalition of support and proving again and again why I’m a winner, and why I’ve been successful at beating Republican incumbent Lori Chavez-DeRemer twice,” she said.
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Bynum previously locked up an endorsement from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and has the full support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She and McLeod-Skinner were neck-and-neck in fundraising in 2023, with Bynum raising just more than $439,000 and McLeod-Skinner collecting a little bit less.
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Bynum said voters can track her legislative record over the past eight years, adding that U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, an environmental champion, endorsed her right away.
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