Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clackamas, announced Wednesday that she plans to run for the 5th Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Happy Valley.

“The people of Oregon’s 5th Congressional District deserve a leader they can count on to fight for their rights and stand up to the extreme agenda of the Republican Party,” Bynum said in a statement. “I’ve been that leader in the state legislature, and I will be that leader in Congress.”

Bynum twice defeated Chavez-DeRemer in races for the House seat that Bynum now holds. 

Bynum’s announcement included endorsements from U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Beaverton and U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Tigard. She said she was also endorsed by the Congressional Black Caucus PAC and 22 fellow state lawmakers, including Senate President Pro Tempore James Manning, Jr., D-Eugene.

If elected, Bynum would be the first black person to represent Oregon in Congress.

Filing for the seat officially opens on Sept. 14, though political action committees for candidates can already be created with the Federal Election Commission.

Lynn Peterson, president of Metro, the elected position on the board that oversees urban areas of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, has announced she’ll run. She has the endorsement of former U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, former Governor Barbara Roberts, and several mayors and county officials in the Portland and Salem areas. 

Kevin Easton, an Oregon Department of Employment investigator in Salem, has also filed with the FEC for the seat. He is a former Bend resident and is seeking to be the first openly gay member of Congress from Oregon.

Chavez-DeRemer won the seat in November by 2% of the vote over Terrebonne attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby in the May Democratic primary.

McLeod-Skinner has said as recently as last month that she is weighing a rematch against Chavez-DeRemer in 2024, but has not made a final decision.

Chavez-DeRemer’s 2022 win was a key to Republicans gaining a 222-212 majority in the House. 

The district runs from southern Portland, through Clackamas, Marion and Linn counties before crossing the Cascades to take in Bend and Redmond in Deschutes County.

It was designed by Democrats during the redistricting for the 2022 election to have a slight Democratic edge based on prior voting patterns. The precincts that make up the district voted for President Joe Biden over then-President Donald Trump by 9% in the 2020 presidential election.

Democrats have listed taking the seat back in 2024 as a top priority. Chavez-DeRemer is rated the ninth most vulnerable of the 435 incumbent U.S. House members in 2024, according to CQ Roll Call, a website focused on Congress.

Chavez-DeRemer has already raised over $600,000 for her re-election campaign.

National Republicans are planning a major defense of the seat in an effort to hold onto the majority in the 2024 election.

The National Republican Congressional Committee sent out a statement soon after Bynum’s announcement calling her an extreme liberal responsible for what the GOP sees as dysfunctional government in Oregon, especially the Portland area.