Democratic congressional candidate Janelle Bynum speaks at a press conference on Oct. 2, 2024. (Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
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Each year, some Oregonians drive more political news than others, and 2024 was no different.
Among the many people who appeared in the digital pages of this news outlet this year, five stood out: Oregon’s first Black member of Congress, an ousted congresswoman who may secure a cabinet position, the attorney who negotiated a drug recriminalization compromise and will lead Oregon’s response to President-elect Donald Trump, the former Republican leader who stormed back onto the political scene and the unelected first lady who drove top employees from the governor’s office.
Janelle Bynum
Democrats smarting over their narrow 2022 loss in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District and fearing a repeat if 2022 nominee Jamie McLeod-Skinner ran again made a bet on state Rep. Janelle Bynum. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries personally recruited her, Gov. Tina Kotek and Bend Democrats who previously backed McLeod-Skinner endorsed her in the primary and national Democratic groups poured money and resources into the race. Their bet paid off: The Clackamas County Democrat easily won her primary and defeated incumbent Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer by nearly 11,000 votes in the 5th District, which stretches from Bend to the outskirts of Portland.
Bynum will be Oregon’s first Black member of Congress — a fact she highlighted in her victory speech as she promised that she won’t be the last. She has now defeated Chavez-DeRemer in three elections, including two state House races in 2016 and 2018. She’ll likely face a tough reelection campaign in 2026, as the 5th District is Oregon’s most competitive.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer
While she lost to Bynum, the one-term congresswoman and former Happy Valley mayor appears to have leveraged an electoral defeat into a promotion on the national stage. Chavez-DeRemer courted union support during her reelection campaign, ultimately earning the backing of more than 20 unions — including the Teamsters. That endorsement proved crucial in Chavez-DeRemer’s potential post-Congress job, as national Teamsters President Sean O’Brien vouched for her to President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump chose Chavez-DeRemer as his labor secretary, and she has spent much of December meeting with Republican senators to shore up support. If confirmed, she’ll be one of only a few Oregonians to serve in a presidential cabinet. The most notable, former Gov. and Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt, was transportation secretary under Democratic President Jimmy Carter, while Portland hotelier Gordon Sondland was Trump’s ambassador to the European Union before later testifying against Trump at an impeachment trial.
Dan Rayfield
The incoming Oregon attorney general and former House speaker worked out a deal on drug recriminalization, won a statewide election and even managed to pass a campaign finance reform law that had long eluded him on his way out the statehouse door. Rayfield, a Democrat from Corvallis, has served in the Legislature since 2015 and spent 2023 and 2024 as House speaker. His focus on collegiality and clear communication set a new, less combative tone than the House had seen in recent years and helped keep House Republicans from joining Senate Republicans in a walkout in 2023.
He was a key negotiator on the compromise that recriminalized drug possession while encouraging a focus on treating addiction over punishing users. He fended off a challenge from Republican Will Lathrop, the most serious GOP candidate to run for attorney general in more than a decade, to become Oregon’s next top law enforcement officer. And with Trump returning to the White House, Rayfield’s national profile is likely to grow as he leads Oregon in expected lawsuits over federal policies that conflict with Oregon laws.
Christine Drazan
Political observers expected the 2022 Republican nominee to run for something after she formed a nonprofit organization and spent months hosting roundtable discussions throughout the state and rallying opposition to legislative proposals. She still caught them by surprise when she announced that she would run not for a congressional seat or statewide office but for the state House, launching a primary challenge against Rep. James Hieb, R-Canby.
Drazan easily defeated Hieb, who received no help from the House Republican caucus. And shortly after she won her uncontested general election, House Republicans chose her to lead their caucus for the next session. While Drazan won’t officially be a House member until Jan. 13, she wasted no time in opining on issues. Drazan and Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, have little trust in Kotek, who was speaker of the House during Drazan’s prior stint as Republican leader with Bonham as her deputy, and that tension could boil over during the long 2025 legislative session.
Aimee Kotek Wilson
Kotek faced her first major scandal this spring, when several top employees abruptly left her office. While those former employees and Kotek have declined to comment on the reason they left, public records confirmed that they had deep concerns about the ethics and optics of first lady Aimee Kotek Wilson’s increasing involvement in the governor’s office. Kotek Wilson, who has a master’s degree in social work, previously worked as a counselor and case manager and said she has personal experience living with mental illness and in recovery from alcohol use disorder — all traits that have made her one of Kotek’s unofficial closest advisers on behavioral health.
But when Kotek tried to give her wife an expanded official role and create an Office of the First Spouse, staff revolted, with at least six advisers leaving, including her chief of staff. Kotek abandoned those plans amid public pushback, and the state’s ethics commission dismissed complaints after commissioners deadlocked. The incident reminded many of the political downfall of former Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat who resigned because of an influence-peddling scandal involving his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes — though there’s no evidence Kotek Wilson would financially benefit from her volunteer role in the governor’s office, as Hayes did through paid consulting work related to the advice she provided Kitzhaber. Kotek, then House speaker, was among the elected officials calling for Kitzhaber to resign in 2015.
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