Splinter Group of Multnomah County Democrats Calls for U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum’s Resignation

A faction of Multnomah County Democrats proposed a resolution July 30 calling on U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.) to resign her seat and drop out of the November general election.

That’s a bold and surprising move at a time when control of Congress is up for grabs and Bynum, 51, a first-termer, is seeking reelection in what has long been considered Oregon’s most closely contested congressional district.

After serving four terms in the Oregon House, Bynum narrowly defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) in 2024, 47.7% to 45%. (Chavez-DeRemer went on to become U.S. secretary of labor, resigning amid scandal in April.)

In defeating Chavez-DeRemer, Bynum became the first Black politician to represent Oregon in Congress. Since 2024, however, Democrats’ voter registration advantage in the 5th District has narrowed from 4.5% to 3.6%, a 20% drop. This time, Bynum faces two-term Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair, the Republican nominee.

But some Multnomah County Democrats, the precinct committee persons and grassroots activists who create a platform and organize around elections for the benefit of Democratic candidates, are more worried about their own nominee than Adair.

It’s Bynum’s record in her first term to which a small group objects. Their criticism of some of Bynum’s votes reflects a growing schism in the Democratic Party locally and nationally between the party’s left wing and its center. (As a state lawmaker, Bynum staked out progressive positions on social issues but was more moderate on economic policies. Bynum began her career as an engineer in the automobile industry and now, along with her husband, owns McDonald’s franchises in the metro area.)

“Bynum voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act, a bill this body believes undermines due process, expands punitive immigration enforcement, and places immigrant communities at greater risk,” the July 30 resolution calling for her resignation said. Progressives railed against that law, which they have said freed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to engage in more punitive behavior.

“[And] Bynum signed the ‘Promise to America,’ a pledge that declares, ‘We are capitalist, not socialist,’ and aligns itself with a narrow ideological project that excludes many working-class, progressive, democratic socialist, labor, and grassroots Democrats.”

Oregon’s 5th District runs from Southeast Portland to Sun River to the southeast and nearly to Junction City to the southwest. Most of the district’s voters are in Clackamas (41.3%) and Deschutes (26.3%) counties, followed by Linn, Marion, Multnomah (7%) and Jefferson counties. In other words, it’s a little more purple than the state’s Democratic stronghold in Portland.

But despite being a small part of Bynum’s constituency, the group of Multnomah County Democrats decided they’d had enough of her “siding with Republican-framed security politics, pro-ICE messaging, and pro-capitalist factional positioning,” as the resolution put it.

One of the five people who put their names on the resolution, Grant Vermillion, wrote on Instagram about meeting Bynum for dinner at Killer Burger earlier this week to discuss the resolution.

“She didn’t like it when I said, ‘Girl, that’s not how it works.’ I want to apologize again here to [Bynum] publicly because I understand the historical racial implications of a male-presenting white body saying that.”

Neither Bynum nor the Democratic Party of Oregon appreciated the effort to end Bynum’s tenure.

“The central mission of the Democratic Party of Oregon is to support Democrats up and down the ballot,” DPO chair Nathan Soltz told OJP. “This effort is a distraction from our focus on sending [Bynum] back to Congress.”

Debate over the resolution occupied most of a 90-minute virtual meeting the Multnomah County Democrats held Thursday evening. As many as 180 precinct committee persons and party activists, far more than the usual turnout, logged on to debate the resolution.

Vermillion spoke passionately in favor of ousting Bynum, at one point comparing himself and his co-petitioners to a group of seven U.S. senators who signed a letter in 1950 opposing the red-baiting tactics of U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.). Vermillion acknowledged criticism that Multnomah County constitutes a small part of Bynum’s district and that she was likely to stay on the ballot. But he insisted the party should stand up for its progressive values.

“Did we write a platform or a press release?” Vermillion asked, adding that he believed “our credibility” was at stake.

His arguments fell flat. Numerous speakers opposed the resolution, none more succinctly than Michael Radway, who said he’d attended party meetings as a precinct committee person for more than 25 years.

“This is the single worst resolution in that time,” Radway said.

The resolution failed, 147–15.

After the vote, Bynum said in a statement she’s focused just on reelection.

“Efforts like these are a referendum on the status quo–and I get it,” she said. “The status quo needs to be disrupted. As the first Black member of Congress in this state’s history, I know that Oregonians sent me to Washington to push back on the establishment that only works for a chosen few. I’ll keep doing exactly that.”

This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon.