The seat became a target for Republicans after Jamie McLeod-Skinner defeated a seven-term centrist incumbent in a Democratic primary.
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Lori Chavez-DeRemer in Gladstone, Ore., last month.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a Republican, won a U.S. House seat in central Oregon on Sunday, according to The Associated Press, defeating her Democratic opponent, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, and handing her party a crucial victory in its push to win a majority in the House.
The Fifth Congressional District became a target for Republicans after Ms. McLeod-Skinner triumphed over Representative Kurt Schrader, a centrist who has served seven terms, in a Democratic primary amid a progressive backlash over his more conservative stances. Ms. Chavez-DeRemer and her Republican allies sought to cast Ms. McLeod-Skinner as too liberal for the district.
In her primary contest against Mr. Schrader, Ms. McLeod-Skinner ran as a more liberal candidate, leveraging frustrations over his opposition to the scope of the Build Back Better agenda championed by President Biden and other Democrats, as well as over Mr. Schrader’s successful push to water down a proposal that would lower the cost of prescription drugs.
But Ms. Chavez-DeRemer, who opposes codifying abortion rights at the federal level and evaded questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, criticized Ms. McLeod-Skinner for her liberal stances. Ms. Chavez-DeRemer was also buoyed by statewide frustration over crime and homelessness in Portland, two issues that energized Republicans and independents to vote for Republican candidates for governor and the House.
Source: nytimes.com
