Oregon's 5th Congressional District
Since the last U.S. Congressional election in 2020, the state of Oregon gained a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives due to a rising population and underwent redistricting.
Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, which used to span from Mount Hood to the Oregon coast, underwent major changes and now includes parts of Linn, Marion and Deschutes counties, including the city of Bend.
Oregon’s 5th Congressional District also includes parts of Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, including some of Portland’s south suburbs.
Oregon’s 5th Congressional District is facing a housing crisis amid a changing landscape. The city of Bend is growing rapidly while grappling with a homelessness crisis, and destructive wildfires have left many struggling to find adequate housing.
The incumbent in Oregon’s 5th District, Democrat Kurt Schrader, was ousted by progressive Democrat challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner in May’s primary election.
Polling for the race shows two candidates, Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Jamie McLeod-Skinner, locked in a highly-competitive race for the seat.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R)
Lori Chavez-DeRemer is the former mayor of Happy Valley running to represent Oregon's 5th U.S. Congressional District as a Republican. Chavez-DeRemer previously mounted two unsuccessful campaigns for office in 2016 and 2018. Chavez-DeRemer works as the marketing director for her husband’s anesthesiology practice.
Chavez-DeRemer did not respond to multiple interview requests from Street Roots.
Chavez-Deremer's website says “there’s no solution in sight” for Oregon’s homelessness crisis. Her campaign materials reflect this stance, making no mention of policies to address the housing and homelessness crisis in Oregon.
“Cities, towns, and communities are all affected by this crisis; the proximity to homeless encampments raises safety concerns for families and businesses,” Chavez-DeRemer’s website reads. “The drug crisis has impacted the homeless population the most.”
Chavez-DeRemer blames “drugs pouring in from our Southern border” fueling the “drug crisis” in Oregon, saying the border must be “secured” to “stop the influx of crime and drugs.”
It is unclear if Chavez-DeRemer supports using or increasing federal funds for permanent housing, transitional housing or emergency shelters though she says she supports “alternatives.”
“Additionally, we can solve the homelessness crisis by offering safe alternatives to get people off the streets,” Chavez-DeRemer’s website concludes, but provides no information on what those “safe alternatives” would be, nor policy proposals to make “safe alternatives” to homelessness available.
Speaking on the “Rational Republican” podcast, Chavez-DeRemer said homelessness is an issue that “everyone should care about.”
Chavez-DeRemer goes on to say there are “different categories” of people experiencing homelessness with different needs, but said she does not support additional funding for the issue, concluding existing funding, such as the Portland Metro Homelessness Tax (which does not impact OR-5) is being misappropriated instead of being used to functionally solve the crisis.
“I would take it even further is, it's not so much we need more (funding) just because they play on our emotions,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “‘Now why is the homelessness crisis gotten out of hand?’ Right, somebody might ask you that, and they just want this simple black-and-white answer: ‘Well, because it was tolerated.’ Yes, that's a true statement. ‘Well, we just allow it because you know there was a time of crisis in COVID.’ Well, that homelessness crisis got out of hand five to seven years prior to that. It's been happening for a long time.”
Chavez-DeRemer did not make any suggestions regarding policy proposals to address the homelessness crisis in Oregon other than suggesting funding to existing programs is wasteful.
Chavez-DeRemer’s number one issue is “inflation, inflation, inflation,” she told KATU.
When asked to provide specific information on policies she would enact to combat inflation, Chavez-DeRemer did not provide specifics, but said she would restrict “wasteful” government spending and support small businesses.
Wildfires and smoke frequently impact communities in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, sometimes with devastating effects. To deal with fires, Chavez-DeRemer says she would manage Oregon’s public forests “like a tree farm” and encourage increased logging. “Tree farms” refer to swathes of land planted with a monoculture tree species for the sole purpose of logging.
Contrary to Chavez-DeRemer’s claims, scientific research shows forests under industrial management burn more severely.
Blaming the “Radical Left” for a host of issues facing Oregon today, including economic issues, community safety, and a lack of support for veterans, Chavez-DeRemer claims on her website that the “radical left in Portland cut their police budget by $26 million.”
However, contrary to Chavez-DeRemer’s claim, as Street Roots reported in August, the Portland Police Bureau experienced a temporary budget reduction of 5%, and is now funded with its largest-ever budget.
Chavez-DeRemer accuses the “Radical Left” of “unAmerican attacks on our armed forces,” though does not provide any frame of reference for this accusation. Recently, 11 Republican senators and 41 Republican representatives attempted to block the passage of the PACT Act, which expanded healthcare coverage and benefits for veterans.
Chavez-DeRemer said she would “fully fund the police” if elected, though it is unclear what power, if any, she would have as a Congresswoman to allocate funds to local law enforcement agencies in OR-5.
When it comes to abortion access, Chavez-DeRemer and her opponent stand on opposing sides of the issue. Although, Chavez-DeRemer told KATU a national abortion ban would be a “nonstarter” for her and acknowledged the overwhelming majority of Oregonians support access to abortion.
Chavez-DeRemer says she does not support “taxpayer-funded abortions” and demurred when discussing if she would support any restrictions on abortion in the state of Oregon. She calls McLeod-Skinner’s support for abortion rights “extreme.”
Jamie McLeod-Skinner (D)
Jamie McLeod-Skinner is an attorney and politician running to represent Oregon’s 5th Congressional District as a Democrat. McLeod-Skinner is the former city manager of Phoenix, Oregon and former interim city manager of Talent, Oregon.
McLeod-Skinner said her priorities include the economy, securing communities, protecting American democracy and personal freedoms, the middle class, addressing the climate crisis and fighting corruption.
When it comes to housing and homelessness, McLeod-Skinner said she supports short- and long-term solutions, including funding permanent housing, transitional housing and emergency shelters and providing wraparound services while increasing the public access.
McLeod-Skinner said long-term solutions to the housing crisis must include developing more affordable housing and making home ownership more affordable to working-class families to help “move people out of cycles of generational poverty.”
McLeod-Skinner said she rented housing most of her life and sees rent and associated costs “skyrocketing." McLeod-Skinner said increasing access to homeownership is a better long-term solution than focusing solely on renting, pointing to creating workforce housing for specific professions like educators and firefighters.
“I am running for Congress because so many Oregonians are hurting and don't feel like D.C. is listening,” McLeod-Skinner said. “We all want to (have a) roof over our head and food on our table; we want opportunity for our kids and health care for our families.
“We want to feel safe in our communities, and not have our homes burned down, or our family farms going under — and the very first thing on that list is a roof over our heads.”
McLeod-Skinner said the high cost of living, housing and health care causes difficulties for Oregonians and said she would support measures to “hold costs down,” though she didn’t specify what measures she would take.
McLeod-Skinner said her upbringing in a single-parent, working-class home where money was tight, informs her desire to improve conditions for working families.
“That was my reality as a kid. That's the reality of so many Oregonians right now,” McLeod-Skinner said. “So many people who are one paycheck away from being on the streets, one COVID hit from being out on the streets.”
McLeod-Skinner points to increased cooperation between wraparound services providing substance abuse treatment and housing providers as a way to prevent people from relapsing after completing treatment.
“These are cost-saving measures because these small investments and doing the right thing for helping people get back on their feet save us tremendous amounts of money in the long run,” McLeod-Skinner said. “It's not just the right thing to do. It's the financially smart thing to do.”
McLeod-Skinner said supporting homeless people is in the best interest of all.
“These are our family members or community members,” McLeod-Skinner said. “I think often what's really frustrating for me is there's a level of disrespect that some people (show) people who are experiencing homelessness. This can be any one of us who is in a situation, and so having respect for our fellow Oregonians and helping people, making those good investments to help people get back on their feet is what we really need to be investing in.”
When addressing community safety, an issue McLeod-Skinner’s opponent has relentlessly criticized her on, funding and accountability are the key components.
McLeod-Skinner was appointed interim city manager of Talent in the aftermath of the devastating Almeda Fire of 2020.
“Well, the difference between me and my opponent is she talks about it — I've actually done this work,” McLeod-Skinner said. “Too often on this topic, people are having an ‘either or’ conversation — we need to both ensure that we have the public safety resources in place and that we have the accountability standards to make sure everyone feels safe with those who are charged for protecting our public safety.”
Despite claims by her opponent that McLeod-Skinner supports “defunding the police,” McLeod-Skinner said she increased funding while working in Talent.
McLeod-Skinner said in her conversations with law enforcement officers in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, they raised one common concern: the availability of behavioral and mental health support services.
“What I'm hearing from our public safety officers is they want the resources and additional training to make sure that they are handling each situation appropriately,” McLeod-Skinner said. “And I think that's incredibly important, both from the community expectation side, and also from the officer side, but also from the person the officer is interacting with."
McLeod-Skinner said she would expand physical, mental and behavioral health care access and resources, saying improved access to health care would help address community safety issues. She criticized Chavez-DeRemer for not supporting government-funded health care programs.
“These programs work,” McLeod-Skinner said. “We need to be investing in these programs, moving forward, not backwards.”
McLeod-Skinner said her and Chavez-DeRemer’s positions on abortion are “probably one of the biggest contrasts in the race.” McLeod-Skinner “absolutely, 100%” supports Oregonians’ rights to seek abortions.
“This is an issue where Democrats, Republicans as well, are very concerned about protecting our privacy rights, protecting our access, and essentially our fundamental personal freedoms because the court has also made it very clear, they're going to start with abortion, and then they're going to contraception, and they're going after families like mine,” McLeod-Skinner said.
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