Politics
Column: Is there room for a non-MAGA Republican in Trump's GOP? This purple patch of Oregon will tell
For nearly a decade, Donald Trump has ruled the Republican Party with a power that rivals the moon and tides.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer is trying to fight that gravitational pull.
Two years ago, the former mayor of Happy Valley, a Portland suburb, scratched out a narrow victory in a Democratic-leaning Oregon congressional district, one of just 16 Republicans nationwide who prevailed on turf where Trump lost to Joe Biden.
Her reelection contest, among the costliest and most competitive races in the country, is also one of roughly two dozen that will determine control of the House.
Columnist Mark Z. Barabak joins candidates for various offices as they hit the campaign trail in this momentous election year.
Beyond that, the race in this purple patch of a deep-blue state will address two broader questions.
How much, in these fractious and deeply polarized times, are voters willing to look past party labels? And what room is left in the Republican Party for someone pledging less than 100% fealty to Trump and rejecting his orthodoxy on issues such as green energy and election denial?
A vote for her, Chavez-DeRemer insists, is not affirmation of the MAGA agenda, nor should voters see it as support for the House Republican leadership firmly lodged under Trump’s thumb.
“What they should see is that I’m going to be thoughtful,” the congresswoman said after touring a union apprenticeship center in Tualatin, another upscale Portland suburb.
“Being a conservative voice, but also being … forward-thinking on how we can get things done,” she went on, “rather than get caught up in just the rhetoric or the talk or the identity politics.”
Her Democratic rival, state Rep. Janelle Bynum, is having none of that.
“My opponent supports President Trump,” she said in the first of two testy debates the pair held last week. (Chavez-DeRemer has, in fact, endorsed his return to the White House.)
“Rubber-stamps his agenda,” Bynum said. “Rubber-stamps his ideas.”
The Democrat’s wall-to-wall TV advertising is blunter still, showing Chavez-DeRemer with glowering images of the ex-president, his mini-me running mate, JD Vance, and scenes from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“Don’t believe MAGA extremists,” one spot ominously intones.
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Oregon’s 5th Congressional District unfurls from the outskirts of Portland, rolling south and east through the forested Cascades, across table-flat farmland and high desert to the recreational mecca of Bend.
The registration is nearly evenly split among unaffiliated voters, who make up the largest chunk of the electorate, followed by Democrats and then Republicans.
For years, much of the region was represented by Kurt Schrader, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress. He lost the 2022 primary to a left-wing opponent, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who, in turn, lost the general election to Chavez-DeRemer.
Fearing a rematch, national Democrats spent millions of dollars in this year’s primary attacking McLeod-Skinner and promoting Bynum, whom they considered a stronger candidate. She has twice beaten Chavez-DeRemer in campaigns for the state Legislature — though, it should be noted, those contests were held in friendlier Democratic territory.
If Bynum wants to make this congressional race about Trump and national Republicans, Chavez-DeRemer is eager to focus on Democrats in Salem, the state capital. She blames one-party rule for surging crime and drug abuse, a growing homeless population and a housing affordability crisis that’s priced out more and more Oregonians.
Bynum, she asserted, has “almost a decade-long” record of failing to address those issues in the Legislature. Things would only get worse, Chavez-DeRemer said, if she went to Congress.
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Chavez-DeRemer, 56, was born and raised in California’s Central Valley and graduated with a business degree from Fresno State University.
She and her husband, who met when she was 15, moved to Oregon more than two decades ago. Together, they founded a network of medical clinics and had twin daughters, now 30.
Chavez-DeRemer began her political career with election to the Happy Valley City Council in 2004 and served two terms as mayor, ending in 2018. It was a job, she tells audiences, where problem-solving was more important than partisanship, an approach she says she’s taken to Washington.
“This isn’t about one side or the other,” Chavez-DeRemer told a meeting of Clackamas County law enforcement officers, before they delivered their endorsement. “I’m willing to work with anybody.”
As a Latina, Chavez-DeRemer doesn’t look like most Republican members of Congress. Nor does she act or vote like them.
She was ranked the 29th most bipartisan House member in a survey done by Georgetown University; Chavez-DeRemer used that particular B-word or some variant a dozen times in an hourlong debate.
She is also the rare GOP lawmaker with strong support from organized labor. Several of the unions that backed her Democratic opponent two years ago endorsed Chavez-DeRemer this time.
Touring the plumbers and steamfitters apprentice program, she talked up the importance of organized labor, extolled the job-creating potential of green energy and mentioned her father was a proud member of the Teamsters. “We are union strong in Oregon,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “That’s important.”
As she entered one training area, where apprentices learn to install sinks and toilets, she paused and took a deep breath of air redolent with the scent of PVC glue and primer. “I love that smell,” she said with a broad smile.
“Smells like money,” said James King, the union’s assistant business manager.
Chavez-DeRemer turned on her heels and gave him a high-five.
::
The congresswoman doesn’t run from Trump. She supports his election in November, she says, because she believes the policies of the Biden administration have failed the country and she considers the former president a strong leader.
But Chavez-DeRemer doesn’t talk about him, either — unless someone brings him up first. “I’ve never even met President Trump,” she says.
In one debate, a viewer-submitted question asked whether Chavez-DeRemer believes Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential race. “Yes, I do believe that,” she said crisply and without hesitation.
Endorsing the former president without embracing him is not the only fine line that Chavez-DeRemer is walking in a district almost certain to back Kamala Harris. She’s also attempting a tricky balance on the abortion issue.
Though Chavez-DeRemer praised the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe vs. Wade and previously indicated support for a ban starting at six weeks — before some women know they are pregnant — she said she would oppose any efforts to outlaw the procedure nationwide.
Most Oregonians favor legalized abortion, she noted, as do most Americans. “I will protect their access,” she promised.
In the end, the contest is likely to come down to trust — a word her opponent used in their second debate even more times than Chavez-DeRemer invoked bipartisanship.
“My opponent cannot be trusted,” Bynum said, whether the question dealt with taxes, housing, inflation or her willingness to break with Trump and fellow Republicans to work, as she constantly pledges, with Democrats.
Janelle Bynum, the Democratic candidate running to represent Oregon’s 5th Congressional District.
(Jenny Kane / Associated Press)
Chavez-DeRemer insists, repeatedly, that her pursuit of compromise is not calculated or a function of being a Republican running in a purple district, which leaves her no choice. It reflects, she said, her true self.
“Oh, I have lots of choices,” she said as she left the peace officers union headquarters. “And my choice is to work hard and work with my colleagues across the aisle.”
Voters will take her word, or not, and that will decide not just Chavez-DeRemer’s future, but how much of a shrinking middle ground still exists.
Politics
Catholics hold 'Rosary Rally' outside Gretchen Whitmer’s house after Doritos video sparks backlash
A group of Catholics held a Rosary Rally outside the home of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday, after the Democrat sparked backlash with a Doritos video that critics alleged made mockery of a sacred Christian rite.
The “Rosary Rally for Religious Respect” was organized by CatholicVote.
The rally comes in response to a controversial social media video in which Gov. Whitmer wore a Harris-Walz campaign hat and fed Doritos to a kneeling liberal podcaster named Liz Plank.
About 100 Catholics rallied outside the governor’s home. (CatholicVote)
The video followed a TikTok trend whereby someone, acting in a sensual manner, is fed by another person who stares uncomfortably into the camera while “Dilemma” by Nelly and Kelly Rowland plays in the background.
MICHIGAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONDEMN WHITMER’S DORITOS VIDEO STUNT AS OFFENSIVE
The bizarre clip was intended to spotlight the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act that allocated nearly $53 billion towards efforts to bring semiconductor supply chains back to the U.S. But religious groups felt the clip made a mockery of the sacrament of Holy Communion.
The Democratic governor apologized in response to the backlash, insisting the video was not meant to mock people of faith.
FILE: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks during a news conference at Michigan State University on November 07, 2022 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Whitmer told FOX 2 that in more than 25 years of public service, “I would never do something to denigrate someone’s faith.”
“I’ve used my platform to stand up for people’s right to hold and practice their personal religious beliefs,” Whitmer said.
CNN AVOIDS ASKING GRETCHEN WHITMER ABOUT BIZARRE VIRAL DORITOS VIDEO
On Sunday, a group of around 100 Catholics recited the rosary in front of the governor’s residence near Moores River Drive in the Michigan capital of Lansing.
The rally was organized by CatholicVote. (CatholicVote)
One of the participants told The Lansing State Journal she participated because of the governor’s “blasphemous and offensive video mocking the Holy Eucharist.”
The Rosary Rally came in response to a video deemed offensive by Catholics. (CatholicVote)
“It’s our most sacred sacrament,” she said. “So, we came to pray. We came to pray for her, and we are also praying out of mercy to pray for our Lord.”
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CatholicVote National Political Director told Fox News Digital that Sunday’s rally was motivated by “deep concern over recent actions that undermine the dignity of the Eucharist and the rising tide of anti-Catholic sentiment promoted by some in the progressive left.
“We find it profoundly troubling that our faith and its sacred beliefs are so openly mocked. As Catholics, we believe in the power of prayer, especially for our nation’s leaders. Our rally served as a call for the conversion of Governor Whitmer’s heart and mind, urging her to recognize and respect our religious convictions,” Church said. “We also hope this serves as a reminder to our elected officials that Catholics vote.”
Republican State Rep. Josh Schriver of Oxford wrote a post on X promoting the “Rosary Rally for Religious Respect.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the governor’s office for a response to the rally.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Politics
Trump camp rips Harris over unearthed comments on renaming Columbus Day: 'Stereotypical leftist'
The Trump campaign slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for allegedly wanting to “cancel American traditions,” citing her 2019 comments supporting efforts to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day.
“Kamala Harris is your stereotypical leftist. Not only does she want to raise taxes and defund the police – she also wants to cancel American traditions like Columbus Day,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt exclusively told Fox News Digital.
“President Trump will make sure Christopher Columbus’ great legacy is honored and protect this holiday from radical leftists who want to erase our nation’s history like Kamala Harris.”
Leavitt was referring to Harris’ 2019 comments when she spoke to voters in New Hampshire about a month after launching her ultimately failed 2020 bid for the White House.
DEFACED COLUMBUS STATUE THAT WAS THROWN INTO A VIRGINIA POND FINDS MORE WELCOMING HOME IN NYC SUBURB
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a church service at Koinonia Christian Center in Greenville, North Carolina, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“Count me in on support,” Harris told a voter when asked if she supports renaming Columbus Day “Indigenous People’s Day,” footage of the event shows.
Harris cited recent legislation she helped author that makes lynching a federal crime as she delivered her response to the New Hampshire voter.
“People did not want to deal and accept and most importantly admit that we are the scene of a crime when it comes to what we did with slavery and Jim Crow and institutionalized racism in this country, and we have to be honest about that,” she said, the Washington Times reported in 2019. “If we are not honest, we are not going to deal with the vestiges of all of that harm, and we are not going to correct course, and we are not going to be true to our values and morals.”
“Similarly, when it comes to indigenous Americans, the indigenous people, there is a lot of work that we still have to do, and I appreciate and applaud your point and your effort, and count me in on support,” she said, marking her support of renaming the holiday.
Columbus Day is a federal holiday that officially celebrates and recognizes Italian explorer Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492. The holiday will be celebrated on Monday this year.
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Portrait of Christopher Columbus, 1519. Found in the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Artist : Piombo, Sebastiano, del (1485-1547). (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
Activists in recent years have worked to disassociate the day from Columbus, claiming it celebrates colonialism and genocide of indigenous people, in favor of celebrating Native Americans. Activists have also worked to remove Columbus statues from cities, including toppling such statues during the riots of 2020.
WILL JULY 4TH, LIKE COLUMBUS DAY, SOON SIMPLY DISAPPEAR?
President Biden was the first president to formally recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2021, but states have taken different approaches to how to celebrate the day.
In 2021, Harris’ first year as vice president, she said that the U.S. “must not shy away” from its “shameful past” of European explorers ushering “in a wave of devastation for tribal nations.”
According to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, former President Donald Trump has a sizable lead with male voters over Vice President Kamala Harris. (AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
“Since 1934, every October the United States has recognized the voyage of the European explorers who first landed on the shores of the Americas,” she said. “But that is not the whole story. That has never been the whole story.
“Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for tribal nations – perpetrating violence, stealing land, and spreading disease,” she said.
FOX NATION’S ‘UNCANCELLING COLUMBUS’ EXPLORES LEFT’S EFFORT TO WARP CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS’ LEGACY
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the media before boarding Air Force Two after assessing the Hurricane Helene recovery response on Oct. 5, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“We must not shy away from this shameful past, and we must shed light on it and do everything we can to address the impact of the past on native communities today.”
A review of Harris’ X account for her vice presidency shows she has exclusively celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day over Columbus Day each year she has been in the office.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on her previous statements and Leavitt’s comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
If you needed just one fact to show that in the world’s greatest democracy one of the two major parties is perversely devoted to suppressing and even subverting the vote, you couldn’t do better than this: The senior counsel for the Republican National Committee’s “election integrity team” — Orwellian doublespeak come to life — is a criminal defendant in Arizona’s case against 18 Republicans who tried to overturn the state’s 2020 vote for Joe Biden.
But there are so many more such facts, alas, and they provoke trepidation about postelection chaos of the sort that Donald Trump and his party unleashed four years ago.
Opinion Columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
As a Republican involved in pre-Trump presidential contests put it to me, when it comes to support for our electoral system, “Trump has taken the party to a bad place.”
Dangerously for democracy, Republicans’ belief in systemic fraud by Democrats is now an article of faith. Witness the elected officials in 2024 still dodging reporters’ questions about who won in 2020, for fear of angering Trump and worshipful party voters. “All they want to do is cheat,” Trump said of Democrats at a recent Wisconsin rally. Ominously, two-thirds of Republicans say they’d trust Trump about whether to accept the results next month, far more than they’d trust a government-certified outcome, according to an August poll from the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Since 2020, red states have enacted voting restrictions under the guise of “election integrity,” though fraud is all but nonexistent. They’ve imposed new identification requirements and limited mail-in ballots, drop boxes and just about any measure aiming to expand participation and provide convenience for harried Americans — and especially for minorities, college students, big-city voters and generally any groups that lean Democratic. Drop boxes have been a target of Republicans especially in Wisconsin, where U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde asked at a campaign event, “Who’s watching to see how many illegal ballots are being stuffed?”
Already millions of voters have cast early ballots, just as state and national Republican groups are pursuing scores of lawsuits nationwide contesting local and state election rules and practices, including about how those early mail-in ballots are counted. They want to throw out some on technicalities, such as failing to date an envelope, that have nothing to do with the ballots’ integrity, and trash any that arrive after election day although they’re postmarked before it.
Republicans are fighting to restrict mail-in ballots even as the party presses its own supporters to vote that way. That’s in keeping with Trump’s false claims that such voting is “corrupt.” Why? Simply because most mail-in votes are from Democrats. In battleground Pennsylvania, for example, Democrats are requesting more than twice as many mail ballots as Republican voters are.
Many of the lawsuits and other challenges before local election boards and legislative bodies won’t succeed, election experts agree, just as the scores of lawsuits filed after Trump’s 2020 defeat failed all the way up to the Supreme Court. On Monday, the justices rejected a petition from Republican secretaries of state, members of Congress and Pennsylvania state lawmakers opposing as unconstitutional a modest executive order from Biden; its provisions include time off for federal employees who wish to volunteer as much-needed nonpartisan poll workers.
But some challenges will prevail. Meanwhile, the legal fights keep election lawyers playing Whac-A-Mole, and leave voters and local administrators perplexed about just what the rules are. What’s different from 2020, and worrisome, is that Trump’s grassroots allies have had years since then to heed his wingman Steve Bannon’s 2021 call to capture control of election boards where votes are first counted and certified: “We’re going to take this back … precinct by precinct.”
The head of one such board in Michigan’s bellwether Macomb County is a Republican who implored Trump to fight to stay in office in 2020. A Republican on a North Carolina county board has made evidence-free claims that Democrats are trafficking in illegal votes. And Republican officials in some Pennsylvania counties have opposed certifying results in past elections. Those are among the findings of a Reuters review of swing-state election administrators.
Such election skeptics likely won’t determine next month’s result, but they could foul up the works by refusing to certify votes for Kamala Harris in the short term and, for the long term, further undermine confidence in voting.
Pennsylvania and Georgia, two of the most hard-fought prizes for Trump and Harris, are the states that most worry election experts. MAGA loyalists are in place in Georgia at the state and county level. They control the state board and have authorized county officials to withhold vote certifications for any “reasonable inquiry” they might conjure; ordered that ballots be counted by hand, a time-consuming and mistake-prone practice; and insisted on naming vote monitors for Democratic-leaning Fulton County, home to Atlanta and a plurality of Black residents. Democrats and voting groups are suing.
But here’s the good news: This time Trump isn’t the president, capable of abusing his power to, say, order the Justice Department to intervene or the Pentagon to seize voting machines. And JD Vance won’t be the vice president who presides when Congress certifies the result next Jan. 6.
Let’s keep it that way for the next four years.
@jackiekcalmes
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