SALEM, Ore. — Democratic state lawmaker Janelle Bynum is projected to win the race for Oregon's 5th Congressional District, according to The Oregonian, ousting incumbent Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer and flipping a key U.S. House seat in the still-unresolved fight for control of the chamber.
Bynum took an early lead over Chavez-DeRemer in the first round of results on election night and managed to hold the lead in the following days, but it was a small enough lead that the race remained too close to call until Friday morning.
Bynum acknowledged her victory in a statement released a statement shortly after the call, and held a news conference Friday afternoon where she thanked her supporters and staff for pushing through the campaign.
"It took all of us working together to flip this seat, and we delivered a win for Oregon," she said.
She spoke about her earlier career as an engineer, analogizing problem-solving in engineering to problem-solving in the political realm. She said she was unable to continue as an engineer due to a lack of good local opportunities when she moved to Oregon, and eventually entered politics after hearing similar stories from others.
"I wanted to figure out how to ensure that my children, and all of our children, can build the type of life in Oregon that was unavailable to me," she said.
Bynum's earlier statement noted that she would be the first Black Member of Congress from Oregon, and she added at the news conference that "it's not lost on my that I am one generation removed from segregation."
"I'm proud to be a groundbreaker, because of what that means not just for my children, but for all young people across our state, to see that change is possible, and that when something big has never been done before, that it might just be because you haven't accomplished it yet."
Chavez-DeRemer's campaign has not released any statement as of midafternoon Friday, and when asked at the news conference if her opponent had conceded, Bynum replied "she didn't in 2016, she didn't in 2018, and I haven't heard from her in 2024," referencing the two prior times when the two faced off in Oregon state legislative races.
The race was among the most closely watched nationally, and it became Oregon's most expensive federal congressional contest this year by far. Democrats controlled the seat for decades until Chavez-DeRemer flipped it in 2022, capitalizing on a changed political environment after the district's borders were heavily adjusted in the 2020 census.
The news comes less than a day after another hotly-contested Pacific Northwest race was also called for Democrats — incumbent Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was able to hold on to her seat in Washington's 3rd Congressional District in a close rematch against challenger Joe Kent.