Oregon Republican Rep. Lori-Chavez-DeRemer has been ousted by Democratic challenger state Rep. Janelle Bynum in the state’s 5th Congressional District, The Associated Press projected Thursday, more than a week after Election Day.

The win narrows the Republican majority in the House to 218 seats to Democrats’ 209.

The race was rated a toss-up by the Fox News Power Rankings.

Chavez-DeRemer was elected to Congress in 2022, defeating her Democratic opponent by two points. With the victory, Chavez-DeRemer became the first woman to represent Oregon in the House of Representatives.

Bynum, who previously defeated Chavez-DeRemer in Oregon legislature races multiple times, was elected to the Oregon House in 2016 and has served on the chamber’s small business committee. She is also the owner of four McDonald’s franchises.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST COULD DECIDE WHICH PARTY CONTROLS THE HOUSE

The two candidates engaged in a contentious race in recent months, with Bynum attempting to link Chavez-DeRemer to President-elect Donald Trump and her position on abortion, as the congresswoman hit Bynum on crime and illegal immigration. 

Last month, it was first reported by Fox News Digital that Bynum was the subject of an ethics complaint for allegedly failing to properly report allegations of sexual harassment and assault against a PAC staffer that worked on her campaign. Bynum has denied those allegations, which the two candidates sparred over in multiple debates.

‘INCENDIARY DEVICE’ SPARKS FIRE AT PORTLAND, OREGON BALLOT BOX

Janelle Bynum is a Democrat running for Congress in Oregon. (Janelle Bynum for Congress)

Election experts predicted that the race between Chavez-DeRemer and Bynum could play a key role in deciding which party controls Congress.

High-profile figures campaigned for both candidates in the campaign’s closing weeks, with GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson rallying with Chavez-DeRemer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stumping for Bynum. 

GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer previously served as mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon. (AP Photo/Steve Dipaola, File)

Oregon’s recently redrawn 5th Congressional District covers Linn County, most of Clackamas, Deschutes, and parts of Multnomah and Marion counties.

WASHINGTON —  Critics of President-elect Donald Trump have long contended that he aspires to use the U.S. military — a nonpartisan force, by rule and tradition — as an instrument of the MAGA agenda that propelled his latest election victory.

Now, in the eyes of some, those concerns are being supercharged.

The relationship of the executive branch and the military has always been a balancing act. The American president is, after all, the commander in chief of the world’s most formidable fighting machine, and the figure ultimately responsible for the nation’s safety and security.

But every senior military officer also takes an oath to defend the Constitution, and pledges to refuse illegal, unconstitutional or criminal directives. During his campaign, Trump flirted with those boundaries, repeatedly musing about using the military to go after domestic political opponents, or to aid in mass deportations of illegal immigrants.

Despite a pledge to be a president who presides over peace rather than war, Trump takes office against a backdrop of global upheaval: wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the increasing closeness of Russia and North Korea, an ascendant China.

Trump rattled wide swaths of the U.S. defense establishment this week with a draft executive order, whose existence was reported Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal, to create a special panel — dubbed a “warrior board” — that would have the power to force out high-ranking generals and admirals.

“I think people should be concerned, in the military and out of it, about the politicization of the military, and the attempt to use it to do the president’s personal will,” said Benjamin Friedman, policy director of the Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities, which advocates for restraint in U.S. foreign policy.

He called the proposed commission a “bad idea.”

The creation of such a panel, if it came to fruition, would facilitate the purging of military leaders who were unwilling to carry out presidential orders — or those relayed by a loyal subordinate. For some, that brand of fealty is in line with Trump’s choice for his secretary of Defense: conservative Fox News personality and military combat veteran Pete Hegseth.

The pick, unveiled Tuesday, drew immediate pushback from some influential veterans groups and current and former lawmakers, who suggested that Hegseth’s ideological leanings, rather than any demonstrated expertise, lay behind him being tapped to run the vast U.S. defense complex. Hegseth, on TV, podcasts and books, has railed against what he calls the “woke” military.

“Pete Hegseth is wholly unqualified to head the Department of Defense and hold the lives of our troops in his hands — period,” Paul Eaton, a former U.S. Army officer and chairman of VoteVets, a nonprofit group that supports veterans and progressive causes, said in a statement.

“I don’t think Hegseth is a serious person or a serious pick,” Rep. Pat Ryan, a New York Democrat and an Army veteran, told MSNBC.

However, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has committed to enacting Trump’s agenda, called Hegseth “a tireless advocate for America’s soldiers and veterans,” saying the weekend “Fox & Friends” co-host would bring “a fresh perspective” to the Pentagon.

“Pete is dedicated to ensuring that our military is focused on lethality and readiness, not woke ideology,” Johnson said in a statement. “He served our country faithfully in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and Iraq and is a believer in peace through strength and the America First agenda.”

Hegseth’s loyalty is significant, because Trump has previously demonstrated willingness to extend his decision-making reach into matters traditionally left to Pentagon leaders. In his first White House tenure, he went through five Defense secretaries in four years.

At least two of those relationships with civilian Pentagon chiefs — retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis and Army combat veteran Mark Esper — resulted in open acrimony, despite a long-standing reluctance on the part of current and retired military officers to publicly criticize the commander in chief.

Such reticence might be exacerbated by the existence of the so-called warrior board. According to the Journal, the panel would consist of ranking retired officers who were empowered to recommend removal of former peers deemed to be “lacking in requisite leadership qualities.”

What exactly those leadership qualities might entail was left vague. But the report quickly raised fears in the context of harsh criticism by Trump and those in his inner circle of “woke generals” — a catchall phrase for those who are derided for allegedly promoting diversity and inclusion at the expense of military readiness.

The “warrior board” proposal takes on broader significance in light of growing fears that Trump will move swiftly to reshape institutions such as the armed forces.

One reason the subject is so sensitive is that accounts of some of Trump’s unorthodox first-term dealings with serving and retired military officials are fresh in the minds of many, aired in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

The former president’s longest-serving chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, made waves with a series of interviews in which he disclosed that Trump spoke wistfully of the loyalty of Hitler’s Nazi generals, and said he believed that Trump’s views aligned with “the general definition of fascist.”

Elements of that assessment were echoed by the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now-retired Gen. Mark Milley, who told Watergate journalist and author Bob Woodward that he considered Trump “fascist to the core.”

In a retirement speech in September 2023, Milley — who worries about being recalled to active duty and court-martialed under a new Trump administration, according to Woodward’s latest book, “War” — offered an indirect commentary widely presumed to refer to the former president: “We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen, to a tyrant or dictator, or wannabe dictator.”

Trump has fired back at such comments, calling Kelly a “total degenerate” in a post last month on TruthSocial.

“John Kelly is a LOWLIFE, and a bad General, whose advice in the White House I no longer sought, and told him to MOVE ON!”

During Trump’s first run for the White House, some of the then-candidate’s commentary on military-related matters would have stopped other political careers in their tracks: his derisive reference to war hero John McCain (“I like people who didn’t get captured”) and his public spat with a Gold Star family.

In the just-ended campaign, Trump also hammered the outgoing administration — first President Biden, and then Vice President Kamala Harris when she took up the fight after Biden dropped out — over the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban takeover, insisting that those who oversaw the pullout should have been fired.

It was Trump, however, who had set the U.S. departure from Afghanistan in motion, setting a timetable that left his successor in office with a narrow range of options.

To scholars of authoritarianism, asserting a high degree of personal control over the military is typical of global strongmen in the mold of Syria’s Bashar Assad or Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prominent experts such as historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat say that under classic authoritarianism, the military is viewed as a tool for pursuing the leader’s own aims, rather than upholding the state’s interests and safeguarding its people.

In a 2021 essay, she cited Trump’s “intensive efforts to chip away at the apolitical nature of the American military” as a means of using the armed forces to help him try to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.

But Trump’s transition moves on defense are seen by many observers as likely to be constrained by factors including the ethics adhered to by the military’s officer class, combined with the sheer weight of Pentagon bureaucracy.

“The kind of outcome where you have a military that is used as the tool of a despot — I don’t think we’re particularly close to that,” said Friedman, of Defense Priorities. “The military will remain professional and apolitical.”

Nonetheless, Trump made clear his determination to leave his mark on the U.S. armed forces, consisting of about 1.3 million active-duty troops and another 1.4 million serving in the National Guard.

In announcing his choice of the “courageous and patriotic” Hegseth for the top defense job, Trump again touted his self-described policy of “peace through strength” — deterrence underpinned by a willingness to use military force when necessary.

“America’s enemies are on notice,” he declared.

The newly confirmed chief of the Los Angeles Police Department made it clear during a recent hearing that his department will “not assist” with the “mass deportations” in comments that sparked social media backlash.

“Since my appearance before the committee on public safety, the national election has caused many Angelenos to feel a deep, deep fear, especially in the immigrant community,” new LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said at a November 8 city council meeting before being sworn in as the department’s 59th chief. 

“I have met with members of the community and heard that fear. We also heard some of that just now at public comment. I know we’ll speak more about immigration later in this hearing, but I want to be unequivocally clear here in my opening comments,” McDonnell continued. “LAPD will protect our immigrant community, LAPD officers will not take action to determine a person’s immigration status, and will not arrest someone for their status, and LAPD will not assist with mass deportations.”

McDonnell went on to say that Los Angeles is a “city of immigrants.”

PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP’S DEPORTATION PLAN TOUTED AS A ‘COST SAVINGS’ OPPORTUNITY FOR AMERICANS

“I know immigrants are being disparaged right now,” McDonnell said. “But I want the people of Los Angeles to know my viewpoint. Our nation was built by immigrants and L.A. is such an extraordinary city because of people here from literally all over the world.”

McDonnell’s comments sparked criticism from conservatives on social media and a clip of the hearing was posted on X by the popular conservative account LibsofTikTok.

“Who wants to tell him that they’re getting deported whether he likes it or not,” the account posted.

“Time to send in the Feds,” conservative influencer Harrison Krank posted on X.

“Get out of California while you still can!” political commentator Gunther Eagleman posted on X.

McDonnell, while previously serving as LA County Sheriff during Trump’s first term, worked with federal immigration agents to deport illegal alien criminals, Los Angeles Times reported, but said during the hearing he would not do so in his current role while pointing to specific policy, including Special Order 40, that prohibits it.

McDonnell was pressed in the hearing by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez on the issue of immigration pointing to the “seismic shift in the national landscape” and asked him to talk about what “protections are guaranteed” for Los Angeles residents illegally living in the United States.

TRUMP SAYS MASS DEPORTATIONS ‘NOT A QUESTION OF A PRICE TAG’

Migrants are processed by the U.S. Border Patrol near the Jacumba Hot Springs after crossing the US-Mexico border on June 13, 2024 in San Diego, California.  (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)

“We don’t stop somebody, we don’t arrest somebody, we don’t deal with people based on their immigration status, everybody gets to be treated equally across the city and so we will continue with that as part of who we are,” McDonnell said in the hearing.

“That’s also bolstered in recent years by the Trust Act and California Values Act in more recent years so the path forward is very clear,” McDonnell said. “LAPD is here to serve all of our communities, immigration is not a factor in how we deal with any individual or any group of people in any of our communities, the way we’re successful as a police organization is if when a crime occurs people are willing to come forward as a witness, as a victim, and be able to be part of the criminal justice process to hold people accountable for their crimes.

The Trust Act became law in California in 2014, after being signed by then Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, and limits the amount of time and reasons ICE hold requests can be honored by local jails.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in Uniondale, N.Y.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A Cato Institute report in 2018 concluded that deportations went down in the city of Los Angeles after the Trust Act and dropped 39% while the rest of the country experienced a 9% drop.

McDonnell told Rodriguez he will be “very clear” about these immigration positions to whoever he talks to, regardless of “what we hear as part of the rhetoric of political discourse.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the LAPD asking whether McDonnell believes it is “wrong” to deport criminal illegal aliens and whether his department would assist in that effort but did not receive a response.

“If they’re not willing to help, then get the hell out of the way because [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] is going to do their job,” Tom Homan, who was acting ICE director during the first Trump administration and was recently named “border czar” under Trump, told Fox News Digital in an interview on Friday about jurisdictions that oppose a deportation effort.

Homan also pledged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be empowered to go after the 425,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes and currently roaming free in the United States, according to a recent ICE report.

“We’re going to go get them,” Homan told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. 

“And I saw today numerous governors from sanctuary states saying they’re going to step in the way. They better get the hell out of the way. Either you help us or get the hell out of the way, because ICE is going to do their job. We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE that the Biden Administration put on them and let ICE do what they do, what they do best,” he added.

Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this report