Chavez-DeRemer tops Oregon congressional dash for cash

By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau

U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Happy Valley, has raised over $1.4 million for her 2024 re-election bid for the seat she flipped from Democrats two years ago, helping cement the narrow GOP majority in the U.S. House.

Friday’s deadline for U.S. House candidates to file a quarterly campaign financing report shows the six incumbents seeking reelection are well ahead of primary challengers, most of whom are yet to get into the race. The four Democrats and two Republicans have a combined $3.87 million in the bank halfway through 2023.

The May 17 primary next year is over 300 days away and the general election is more than 475 days in the future.

The quarterly reports were an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to tout their fundraising prowess, while getting in slam shots at potential opponents in the 2024 election. 

Nowhere is that more true than in the 5th Congressional District, which runs from Portland over the Cascades to Bend. Created by Democratic mapmakers in the Oregon Legislature as part of a plan they hoped would result in their party winning five of six U.S. House seats, it was cobbled together with precincts that had voted for Joe Biden in 2020 over Donald Trump by eight points. 

Chavez-DeRemer flipped the Democratic-held seat in 2022, helping the GOP to a 222-213 majority in the U.S. House. The election broke the Democratic control of the White House, Senate and U.S. House resulting from the 2020 election.

‘Torrent’ of ‘massive’ GOP money

Republicans are filling Chavez-DeRemer’s re-election campaign coffers as a bulwark against any Democratic attempt to flip the seat back to their column.

Chavez-DeRemer’s  Federal Elections Commission report shows she’s raised more than $1.4 million in the first six months of 2023. But the incumbent is also spending heavily — $450,765.47 since Jan. 1. The campaign reports it has $387,997.12 in unpaid debt, but also $972,133.04 in the bank.

Nick Trainer, a Washington, D.C. political strategist and former White House aide to President Donald Trump, is a senior advisor for Chavez-DeRemer’s re-election campaign. In a statement late last week, he suggested the “fundraising torrent with massive Q2 numbers” would be built while Democrats fought each other in the May 2024 primary.

“As Democrats begin their battle over who is the most extreme Leftist in Oregon 5th Congressional District, Congresswoman Chavez-DeRemer is building a significant war chest for whichever Extremist is unlucky enough to face her next November,” Trainer said. 

Chavez-DeRemer has been rated the ninth most vulnerable incumbent running for re-election in 2024 by Roll Call, a Washington, D.C. publication focused on Congress. 

National Democrats on Friday jumped on Chavez-DeRemer’s support for a version of the National Defense Authorization Act approved in the U.S. House that includes a ban on the Pentagon covering travel costs for servicemembers stationed in a state that has restricted abortion access.

“Lori Chavez-DeRemer and her fellow Republicans are so hell-bent on enacting their extreme agenda, including a nationwide abortion ban, that they’re willing to hijack an historically bipartisan bill that authorizes essential national defense programs and pay raises to the brave men and women that protect our country — shame on them,” said Courtney Rice, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C..

U.S. House is key partisan battleground

All 435 seats in the U.S. House are on the ballot in 2024 — including Oregon’s six seats. All of the half dozen incumbents — four Democrats and two Republicans — are seeking re-election.

In the 5th Congressional District, Chavez-DeRemer is the only Republican to date to file to run for 2024.

Five Democrats have announced plans to run for the seat. 

Terrebonne attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner will make a second run for the seat in 2024. She defeated U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, in the May 2022 Democratic primary, only to narrowly lose the November election to Chavez-DeRemer.

Progressive Democrats who backed McLeod-Skinner blamed the House Leadership Fund, controlled by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for failing to fund the insurgent Democrat because she dared take on Schrader. McLeod-Skinner’s campaign says it raised more than $100,000 in the 24-hours after her May 10 announcement she would enter the primary. Those funds will show up in the next quarterly report due in mid-October.

With the 5th Congressional District seat now held by the GOP, three other Democrats have announced they are running for the Democratic nomination.

In addition to McLeod-Skinner, two are actively campaigning:

• Lynn Peterson of Lake Oswego, the elected president of the tri-county Metro Council regional government covering the greater Portland area, filed to run on June 1. Her quarterly report, covering just fundraising in June, showed just over $60,000 in contributions.
• Oregon Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clackamas, filed to run June 21. Bynum defeated Chavez-DeRemer in two races for the Oregon House. In announcing her candidacy, Bynum said she was encouraged to run by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY. She has $54,000 in a state campaign fund, but it cannot be easily transferred to the congressional campaign because of the difference in state and federal law.

 

Cameron Pahl, a Portland software engineer, hasn’t raised or spent any funds. One candidate has dropped out. Kevin Easton of Salem filed to run for the seat, campaigning to become the first openly gay U.S. House member from Oregon. He announced last week that he was withdrawing and endorsed McLeod-Skinner. 

U.S. House races in Oregon

Friday was the deadline for candidates running for Congress, the U.S. Senate or President to file a report on money raised, spent and in the bank as of the end of the second quarter — June 30, 2024. 

Oregon’s incumbent U.S. House members recorded the largest fundraising in their races.

1st District: U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Beaverton, is seeking another two years representing the heavily Democratic-leaning 1st Congressional District in northwestern Oregon. She has raised $180,242 this year, spent $266,853.29, and has $574,567.90 in the bank.

2nd District: U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, is running for a third term to the state’s overwhelmingly Republican-tilting 2nd Congressional District, which takes up nearly all of the state east of the Cascades, with the exception of Bend and Redmond areas in Deschutes County. The district also includes a portion in the southwest that stretches to include Medford. Bentz has raised $296,129.61 and spent $198,943.30. His bank balance is $839,701.28.

3rd District: U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland, is the dean of the Oregon delegation in the U.S. House, serving since 1996. He replaced Democrat Ron Wyden, who was elected to the U.S. Senate after 15 years in the U.S. House. Blumenauer’s district is the most heavily Democratic in the state — and he’s unique in that he represents two of his House colleagues — Salinas and Chavez-DeRemer, who were elected while living just outside their districts. Blumenauer reported raising $308,712.39 this year, while spending $367,741.63. With the rollover of funds from earlier years, he reports $778,843.29

4th District: Freshman U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle. D-Springfield. reported raising $526,147.82, spending $409,295.47 and has $213,246.20

5th District: Freshman Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Happy Valley, listed above.

6th District: Freshman U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Tigard, is seeking re-election for the first time to the 6th Congressional District. Oregon was awarded a new sixth seat in the U.S. House because of its population growth over the prior decade. Her FEC report shows she’s raised $666,349.70 so far this year, spent $247,305.67 and has $488,040.31 cash on hand.