PORTLAND, Ore. — Democrat Janelle Bynum has successfully secured Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, making history as the first Black individual to represent the state in Congress.

Bynum, who serves as a state representative, received significant support and funding from national Democratic organizations, successfully unseating GOP freshman U.S. Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer. This electoral shift marks a notable loss for Republicans, who had managed to reclaim this seat for the first time in approximately 25 years during the midterm elections of 2022.

The race was categorized as a competitive toss-up by the Cook Political Report, suggesting that both parties had a viable chance at victory.

Previously, Bynum had triumphed over Chavez-DeRemer in earlier state legislative contests. In the 2022 elections, Chavez-DeRemer claimed victory in a tight race, marking the first time this district held an election after undergoing significant boundary changes due to the post-2020 census redistricting.

The newly configured district consists of diverse areas, including metropolitan Portland alongside both affluent and working-class suburbs, along with rural agricultural regions and communities in the rising central Oregon city of Bend, situated across the Cascade Range. While registered Democrats outnumber their Republican counterparts by around 25,000 in this district, the largest voting bloc is made up of unaffiliated voters.

A small section of the district is located within Multnomah County, where an incendiary device was used to ignite a ballot box just outside the county elections office in Portland about a week before the election, causing damage to three ballots. Authorities revealed that investigations into the incendiary device indicated a link to two additional ballot drop box fires in nearby Vancouver, Washington. One of these fires occurred on the same day as the Portland incident, resulting in the damage of hundreds of ballots.