Janelle Bynum is Running for Congress to Fight Project 2025, Republican Extremism
There’s probably no U.S. House race with more attention on it than the one in Oregon’s 5th congressional district. Democratic state representative Janelle Bynum is running to unseat first-term Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, in a race that could ultimately flip party control of the House of Representatives.
It’s a lot of pressure — especially for a candidate seeking to unseat an incumbent. But for Bynum — an electrical engineer, small business owner, and mother of four — it’s not the first time she’s run against Chavez-DeRemer. In fact, it’s her third match-up with the current Congress woman. Bynum beat Chavez-DeRemer in state House races in 2016 and 2018. Still, she’s not counting on the past to dictate the future. The gravity of her race isn’t lost on Bynum, who told Democracy Docket that she felt compelled to run for Congress because of the growing threat of the GOP’s extremist agenda.
But even with the weight of future party control of the U.S. House on her shoulders, Bynum is hyper focused on what’s best for her constituents in her district. Her priorities on the campaign trail — reproductive rights, protecting and expanding the right to vote, soaring housing costs and environmental issues —are shaped directly by conversations she’s having with the residents of Oregon’s 5th district.
Responses have been edited for style and clarity.
You made national headlines in 2018 because someone called 911 to report you as a “suspicious person” while you were canvassing door to door in your district. How did that experience shape you as a lawmaker?
Well, I’m a mom of four, I’m an electrical engineer and, at the time, I was running for reelection after my first win over the now-Republican incumbent. It was really a transformative experience in representing my community. Regarding the things I’ve learned, one: you’ve got to keep a cool head. And two: use every opportunity as a learning experience to move the needle. That’s what this election is about: moving the needle for your constituents and moving the needle for the country. And that’s what we’re not seeing out of Washington, D.C. right now.
In their endorsements of you, national groups like EMILY’s List and Defend the Vote note your bipartisan work in the Oregon Legislature on voter engagement and turnout — especially your work in youth voter engagement. Can you talk about that work?
Most importantly, I have represented now, for four terms, a swing district. And I think my experience as a mom, my experience as a business owner, my experience as a legislator has taught me, number one: to focus on the ideas and to focus on the outputs.
In engineering, you have an input, you have a system and you have an output. People are not really beholden to political stripes once you’re in office. It is more about, ‘Can you serve the needs of the people?’ So, for instance, in voter youth engagement, I’ve always been really focused on making sure people understood the voting process, young people felt engaged and encouraged.
One of the big wins that we’ve had here in Oregon is we have motor voter registration. So as soon as you go to the DMV and you get your ID or your driver’s license, you’re automatically registered to vote. And then we added on top of that, when you’re 16 and you get your license or your ID — and my daughter just turned 16 yesterday, so I’m really excited for her! — you’re automatically pre-registered to vote.
And I think it’s those types of things that make us have a more informed electorate, and one that can really hold politicians, and those who are elected, hold their feet to the fire to generate the outcomes that are important to them.
I know a lot of Congressional Democrats have been pushing to pass different voter engagement bills. How do you plan to continue that work you’ve been so successful with in the Oregon legislature to a national level in Congress?
I think it’s important for us to acknowledge that voter suppression is still going on. We know college students in some places can’t use their ID as a form of ID [for voting] but you can use a hunting license as a form of ID. And so the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is important to pass.
Also, voter education is very important. What I learned from my 22-year-old daughter as she was going through the graduate school process, she and her friends were actually talking about where they can vote, where their reproductive rights would be protected. Young people understand that there are consequences to not engaging in voting. And to the extremism that is happening in Congress right now. And so making sure that people are educated on what their rights are. That there is full and unabated access to the ballot is job one, I think, for Americans.
I’m glad you brought up the extremist agenda of the Republicans in Congress. You’ve talked about Project 2025 before and there’s a lot in there that would greatly affect people’s access to the ballot box. I’m curious, from your point of view as someone who’s running to prevent what’s in Project 2025 from coming to fruition, what are some of the elements there that are most concerning to you?
Well, authoritarianism is really, really concerning. And when we look at [Project 2025’s] cuts to civil servants and those people who serve our government without regard to political stripes, how do we keep a functioning Department of Education? We know that we have young people who — I have a kid with an IEP, that is really, really important.
How do we protect kids with special needs and make sure they have access to their own education? How do we make sure we protect civil servants so they’re not just political appointees and cronies in government? How do we make sure we protect social security for our seniors? Those are the things that are pretty scary.
And here’s what’s really interesting: Some people believe documents like these are hyperbole. That they’re some far-out ideas. Republicans have shown us time and time again, they will show us the playbook — I’m a sports mom — they’ll show us the playbook, and just like with Roe, they will execute. Trump has installed judges that will play by his rules. They have shown us they will give us the playbook, they will execute and our lives will forever be changed.
I think you’re absolutely right and I’m glad you brought up that point about the believability of if Project 2025 comes to fruition. I’ve done a lot of reporting on it and people ask me, “Why should we believe that this is possible?” And I think what you just said absolutely gets at the heart of why it’s such a threat at our doorstep.
And they put a lot of effort into it! It’s not like some 16-year-olds kicking around ideas after school. It’s a whole production.
Right! It’s almost 1,000 pages long. You don’t just write that over a long weekend. That’s something that’s years in the making. But I digress — You spent the past seven years serving in the Oregon House, what compelled you to jump into the race for the U.S. House of Representatives?
I was trying to retire from the state legislature! I’m a big believer in passing opportunity on to the next generation. And so I felt I had done really solid work — whether it was in reproductive rights, whether it was in gender equity, whether it was on the economy, civil rights — I had a full portfolio of really robust legislation, including the CROWN Act for Oregon.
And I think seeing what was at stake, and a sense of patriotism — the chaos in Washington, D.C. is something you can’t turn your eyes away from, if you are engaged in politics and you understand what’s at stake. Furthermore, when you think about the threat of extremism in this country and around the world, you can’t unsee certain things. And so, Lori Chavez-DeRemer is the Republican incumbent. I’ve beaten her not once, but twice. And I’m ready to do it a third time.
This is a Biden, almost +10 seat. It was lost by two points last cycle. And it should be a seat that allows a representative who is engaged on the issues, who listens to their constituents, who engages in town halls, and doesn’t just rubber stamp a MAGA extremist agenda. So that’s why I’m running. It’s a seat that’s winnable and it’s purely the path to victory back to controlling the House for Democrats.
Absolutely. This race is, like you said, one of the key races for flipping the House. It’s a vastly important race, not just for your congressional district but for the entire Congress. On top of that, we have an incredibly important presidential election. Can you talk about the experience of running this race for this pivotal House seat at the same time as Vice President Kamala Harris running in what could end up being one of the most important elections in our life? What is that parallel experience like for you?
Well, having run in a swing district, now five times, I’ve never had the luxury of being able to depend on the top of the ticket to carry us to victory. And so it is nice to have Harris at the top of the ticket, all of the skills that she brings, all of the experience that she brings.
But more importantly, what I try to drive home when I’m talking with constituents and I’m talking with volunteers everyday, is that every vote counts. And in this district it is absolutely important for us to turn out Democrats, important for us to turn out what we call non-affiliated voters here — independent as a party — and it’s also important for us to turn out people who have a pro-choice leaning. For them, that is the real issue. It’s nice to have such a strong ticket, at the top of the ticket, but it’s not something that I’m counting on.
You mentioned earlier the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is one of the important bills that you would like to see passed, should Democrats take back the House. Are there any other pieces of legislation — whether its voting rights or democracy-related — that you hope to see Congress pass in the next session, should you and the Democrats become the House majority?
Oregonians have told me their top priorities are protecting reproductive rights. So — codifying Roe, number one. They’ve also told me that housing — and I’m feeling it, because I’ve got two Gen Z kids, who we’re paying rent for, and that is really challenging. So the cost of housing is really important, they’ve said. My seniors are really concerned about us protecting social security. I don’t have all of the solutions for social security but I do think we need to make it a priority, to ensure that we protect it and Medicaid.
And then finally, what is also important here in the district — this is a very interestingly shaped district. It has parts of Portland, which is very urban, it has parts of the suburbs, it has a rural, agricultural district that includes the Willamette wine valley and then we have central Oregon, which is a vacation paradise with mountains and streams and rivers. And so the environment is very important to us. And one of the things we’ve had to suffer here in Oregon with is wildfires.
We want to make sure we’re coordinating with the federal government on wildfire prevention and wildfire protection but also making sure we have abundant water resources, both for human consumption as well as our wildlife. So those are the things that are on the agenda for the residents of Oregon 5.
I think those are all important issues and you’re right that, for both Oregon and the country, they need to be a priority for the next Congress. One last question for you: What, in your view, is the greatest threat to democracy and what do you think is the best way to address it?
It really is apathy and access to the ballot. And so that’s why, when I think about the transformational nature of the shift of Harris and Tim Walz to the top of the ticket — I’m an engineer and there’s a law that says that energy is neither created nor destroyed, it just changes form. And when you think about the energy that was latent in our communities and people were feeling apathetic and they were giving up hope. And I think that is purely to blame on Republicans who weren’t doing anything in Congress.
When they can create apathy, they take the ability, they take that opportunity to have people take their eyes off of what is really happening. And they have people check out. And so now that we have people engaged, our young people can push to make sure our reproductive rights are protected. Push to make sure voting rights are protected around the country. They can push to make sure that, for seniors, prescription drug prices don’t eat them out of house and home. They can push to make sure these algorithms that are changing the face of the housing market aren’t pushing up rents. They can push to make sure those types of things come into checks and balances, like we’ve never seen before.
So it’s apathy we have to fight against. I am really excited that there’s a lot of joy and enthusiasm and I’m really excited to take home the victory for the residents of Oregon’s 5th congressional district and beat Lori Chavez-DeRemer and get the people back to work.