Republican incumbent Lori Chavez-DeRemer (right) and Democratic challenger Janelle Bynum face off in their first debate in the 5th Congressional District race on Oct. 10, 2024 on KOIN TV in Portland. (Screenshot courtesy of KOIN)
First-term Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Democratic challenger Janelle Bynum traded blows over abortion, crime and citizen engagement during their first debate on Tuesday.
The hourlong debate on Portland-based KOIN TV gave voters from Portland to Bend their first opportunity to hear directly from the candidates in a race that could decide control of the U.S. House. They’ll have two more televised matchups in the next week – Chavez-DeRemer and Bynum will meet Thursday on Bend-based KTVZ TV and next Tuesday on Central Oregon Daily.
The debate gave both candidates a chance to attack each other’s records. Bynum hit Chavez-DeRemer on her support for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and conflicting stances on abortion, while Chavez-DeRemer slammed Bynum’s work on criminal justice bills and a recent complaint that Bynum ignored an alleged sexual assault perpetrated by someone who worked on her 2022 campaign. That complaint, filed with the Legislative Equity Office by the campaign manager of Bynum’s opponent in the Democratic primary, was dismissed by state officials as a third-party account.
Sparks fly on abortion
While Oregon has the least restrictive abortion laws in the country, Democrats including Bynum have campaigned on the danger of a national abortion ban should Republicans regain control of the White House and the Senate.
Chavez-DeRemr said she would not support a federal ban, and that she considers the point moot because it won’t come to a vote in the House.
“I’m never pro-choice enough for the left,” she said. “I’m never pro-life enough for the right. (I’m) where most Americans are. They have said they want access, I will not break that promise, and I will protect their access to abortion.”
Bynum said one of her first priorities if elected would be to pass legislation to restore the right to abortion that women had nationwide until Roe v. Wade was overturned. She said that her 22-year-old daughter and her friends, who are now deciding where to attend graduate school, have had to rule out schools in states that don’t protect reproductive rights.
“Where I think Representative Chavez-DeRemer fails us is that she promised to uphold Roe and yet she has voted 13 times on bills that essentially would pass a national abortion ban. She’s also supported the heartbeat bill, and we all know that Republicans’ number one option right now is to make sure that abortion is not available across the country.”
Chavez-DeRemer called that an “outright lie,” saying that there was no vote on any heartbeat bill – the common term for an abortion ban at around six weeks, before many women know they’re pregnant. While the U.S. House has not voted on a heartbeat bill during Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure, she expressed support for such legislation during the 2022 primary, tweeting “A vast majority of Americans want restrictions on abortion and I would be in favor of passing legislation like the heartbeat bill.”
After winning that primary, Chavez-DeRemer pivoted to her current position of promising to support Oregonians’ choices to protect abortion access, while voting for several bills that limited abortion access, including a measure to block the federal government from reimbursing military members for traveling for abortions and to penalize doctors who fail to provide a required level care for infants born alive after a failed abortion.
Sparring over public safety
Republicans see crime and public safety as a weakness for Bynum, who led the Legislature’s efforts to reform policing before and after the Black Lives Matter movement came to a head with George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
Law enforcement agencies throughout the state have endorsed Chavez-DeRemer, who said that support reflects a “failed decade of policies” led by Bynum.
“In my 22 short months, I have made sure that they have the tools that they need to protect people on the streets,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “So she is soft on crime. She doesn’t want to admit it, but she took votes in the Legislature to give rapists less time than the victims to file that claim. She’d rather protect rapists and rioters than do what’s right for the public safety of our streets.”
Bynum replied that Chavez-DeRemer was trying to distract from her own record of supporting Trump, a convicted felon.
“My opponent is trying to cover up the fact that she supports former President Trump, who has been convicted 34 times of felonies and has credibly been accused of sexual assault,” she said. “She is trying to cover up her support of President Trump, and that is why she’s going to this mantra of ‘soft on crime.’ She is standing by her man.”
Chavez-DeRemer returned to her criticism of Bynum as protecting rapists when moderators asked about reporting this week about the complaint filed by a Democratic political operative against Bynum. That complaint alleged that Bynum didn’t report a sexual assault of a teen made by a field director for FuturePAC, the House Democratic caucus’s campaign arm, who worked on her 2022 legislative campaign. The complaint contained no evidence that Bynum was made aware of an alleged assault, just that someone discussed years-old tweets about the FuturePAC employee behaving inappropriately with minors when he was 18 and 19.
“I did everything that I could have and was supposed to do,” Bynum said. “I’m 100% confident in that.”
Chavez-DeRemer claimed that a young girl came to Bynum and said there was a problem, which Bynum called “fantasies” and “incorrect information.”
Citizen engagement and voting
The two discussed their different approaches to meeting with voters and constituents. Chavez-DeRemer has been criticized for not holding any in-person town hall meetings since her election – an abnormality in Oregon, where voters are used to U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, holding town halls in every county every year.
Chavez-DeRemer called that criticism “nonsense,” saying it comes only from Indivisible, a progressive group that formed after Trump’s 2016 election. She has held eight tele-town halls and regularly talks to elected officials in the district, she said.
“The criticism is only a political hit, and, and I look forward to continue to talk to my voters,” she said. “ I’m never afraid to answer the call.”
Bynum, meanwhile, said she regularly holds town halls as a legislator. She enjoys what she calls “taco town halls” – a group brings tacos and an agenda, and she shows up, as well as meeting constituents for “walking town halls” where she walks around a high school track or mall with individual constituents.
Chavez-DeRemer said she believes that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but she’s still supporting Trump, who insists the election was stolen, because she preferred Trump’s policies.
Areas of agreement
Both candidates said they supported continuing the country’s current level of aid to Israel, which has been embroiled in war with Hamas since the terrorist organization attacked on Oct. 7, 2023. Chavez-DeRemer visited Israel in April and said that Israel is also fighting on behalf of the U.S.
“We don’t want our men and women going to war,” she said. “We don’t want another ground war. We don’t need another failed Afghanistan. What we need is to make sure that we’re supporting our allies in their fight against Hamas.”
Both also agreed that climate change poses a threat, though Bynum critiqued Chavez-DeRemer for not doing enough in Congress to combat the issue. Being one of the vice chairs of the conservative climate caucus doesn’t mean much, she said.
“This isn’t high school,” Bynum said. “ You don’t get to join every club and take credit for actually doing any work.”
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