House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, rallies a crowd of about 150 Republicans at a rally in front of U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, right. U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, looks on. (Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
OREGON CITY – House Speaker Mike Johnson cast the 2024 election as a battle between good and evil in a speech calling on about 150 enthusiastic Republicans to vote for vulnerable U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who represents the 5th Congressional District of Oregon represents.
Johnson, R-Louisiana, said he saved his Oregon City meeting with Chavez-DeRemer for the end of the election cycle because of how important it is. Oregon’s 5th District, which stretches from Portland to Bend, is the most competitive in Oregon and one of the few races nationwide that could decide which party controls the House.
He praised Chavez-DeRemer for her bipartisan record — she regularly touts a report showing her as the second most bipartisan member of Congress — before quickly pivoting to bashing Democrats.
“They don’t believe in the founding principles of America,” he said. “They have contempt for our foundations. They want us to be something else. They want us to become some kind of European-style Marxist utopia, and everyone in this room today knows that that is dangerous, and that is why we are now in a battle to preserve the greatest nation. This is not like any election we have ever had.”
Johnson said Republicans have laid out a playbook for their first 100 days if they win the House, Senate and presidency, starting with securing the U.S. border and extending the 2017 tax cuts. And Chavez-DeRemer will play a key role in that agenda, he said.
“I just want you to know that Lori Chavez-DeRemer is the model girl in terms of effectiveness, hard work and executing plays with precision,” he said.
Johnson also held a fundraiser and campaign rally for Republican challenger Joe Kent in Southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, represented by Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez. And House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, also hosted a fundraiser for Chavez-DeRemer on Wednesday night and a breakfast fundraiser for Kent on Thursday.
Earlier in October, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Visited Clakamas to campaign for Bynum, whom he called “the ultimate example of what a member of the House of Representatives and a public servant should be.” Unlike Jeffries and Bynum, Johnson and Chavez-DeRemer declined to answer questions from reporters at their event.
Bynum said in a statement that the Chavez-DeRemer campaign with Johnson confirms that the Republican incumbent is a threat to abortion rights.
“Lori Chavez-DeRemer has attempted to mislead voters based on her abortion history, but her support of one of the most extreme anti-abortion lawmakers, Mike Johnson, further confirms that she poses a direct threat to reproductive rights in Congress,” she said. Bynum. “She has been given every opportunity to represent and perform in Oregon, but has sided with MAGA extremists time and time again. Oregon’s 5th District deserves better, and I will go to Congress to protect abortion rights and stand up for all Oregonians.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also condemned Chavez-DeRemer for campaigning with Johnson in a statement, saying voters will hold her accountable within 11 days.
“After failing to cover up her attacks on women’s reproductive freedoms throughout her campaign, Lori Chavez-DeRemer has officially left the moderate profile,” DCCC spokesman Dan Gottlieb said. “By campaigning with Mike Johnson – who has led the charge against women’s reproductive rights and Social Security and Medicare – Chavez-DeRemer is once again putting her loyalty to MAGA extremists above Oregonians. In eleven days, voters will hold Chavez-DeRemer accountable for her far-right agenda.”
The Democrats have long attacked Chavez-DeRemer for supporting Johnson, whom they call “MAGA Mike.” Johnson, a fierce opponent of abortion rights, called in 2022 for punishing doctors who perform abortions with ‘forced labor’ in prison and for (co-)sponsoring bills to ban abortions nationwide six weeks or 15 weeks, ban federal funding for all clinics that perform abortions and declare that life starts with fertilization.
Chavez-DeRemer voted for one account he co-sponsored a requirement that health care providers immediately hospitalize any fetus that survives an abortion. Medical professionals convicted that measure, which they say would prevent physicians from providing compassionate, evidence-based care.
Johnson also voted against a 2022 law recognizing same-sex and interracial marriages, and against legislation banning discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. As a constitutional lawyer, he signed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case seeking to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election, and voted against certifying the 2020 election results from Arizona and Pennsylvania, two won by Joe Biden states.
Chavez-DeRemer confirmed when asked in debates this month that she believed Biden won in 2020. She has changed her position on abortion rights throughout her political career, but since her election in 2022 she has said she will oppose any legislation that “fundamentally changes access to abortion.”
On Thursday, Chavez-DeRemer said Democrats were trying to “nationalize” the race, but she sees it as a local race focused on local issues.
“I call myself mayor of the 5th District for a reason, and it’s because it matters,” she said. “Every day we represent everyone. No one ever knew what my party was when I was mayor, and I didn’t ask what their party was when they needed me on the streets of Happy Valley. And I treat it the same way in Washington, DC”
She told her supporters that they would hear lies about her for the next ten days, and that they should not listen to the reports they heard. But they shouldn’t forget Bynum either, she said.
“I don’t want you to forget her,” she said. “I want you to regret her. “I want you to regret the policies she implemented and not forget what she did, because they have long-lasting, lasting effects on the streets of Oregon.”
Chavez-DeRemer frequently refers to her support from unions, 20 of which have backed her campaign. Oregon’s largest and most politically powerful unions, including the Service Employees International Union Local 503, the Oregon Education Association and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, are backing Bynum, while the state’s largest union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, supports both candidates.
Jimbo Anderson, business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 701, introduced Chavez-DeRemer on Thursday. He said she met his criteria, which included opposing right-to-work laws, supporting prevailing wage contracts and supporting apprenticeships.
“We’re for Lori because she’s for childbirth,” he said.
Other supporters of Chavez-DeRemer traveled Thursday to cheer her on and see Johnson. Jeanie Wenning, adorned with Trump pins, drove from Lebanon to attend the event with her friend Ginger Larcom of Corvallis. She said she always believed that Christians like her should not get involved in politics.
“Until 2020, all I did was vote and my husband and I watched Fox News,” she said. “2020 has changed things.”
The COVID pandemic, associated school and business closures, riots and the 2020 election convinced Wenning to become more involved. She said she was surprised at how quickly she made good friends with other people who shared her political beliefs, as they moved beyond small talk to discuss big issues like faith and country.
But Marilyn Cheney Thomas, who stood front and center in a dazzling Trump hat, lost relationships because of her political beliefs. Thomas — who wants to be clear that she is not related to former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney or her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris — is estranged from her son, whom she calls a “demon rat.” mentions. ” because of his Democratic registration.
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