One-on-one with Rep. Janelle Bynum | KOIN Conversations

Welcome to coin conversation. This is Ken Body and, you know, it's a very special interview we've got right now. It's been almost a year since Democrats, you know, Bynum was elected to Congress in Oregon's fifth congressional district. What a year has been from the big beautiful bill to health care, to concerns about losses in federal funding. Congress has been very active. Now Congresswoman Bynum is running for another term, so she's beginning another campaign as she reflects on her first year in office, Congresswoman Bynum. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. Well, big issue in Congress right now, the expiration of the Obamacare tax subsidy, starting in 2026. How could this affect your district, which does include Clackamas County and Bend and Central Oregon, and do you think Congress will eventually pass the extension? Well, I'm hoping my Republican colleagues, while they're on break, get an earful from their constituents because I've gotten a near full from mine. We know that these subsidies are critical to small business owners, to people who run churches or nonprofit institutions. We know that it's not just hitting one group of the population, it's hitting everybody. So this is important. Do you think Congress will eventually pass that extension? I think we'll pass something because this is not a red or blue issue. This is an American issue. So the challenge right now is we need enough healthy people in the population. We need to make sure young people decide not to opt out. We need to make sure that local hospitals and doctors offices have enough of a patient population to make it worthwhile so that we keep them open. And we need to make sure that we have a healthy population of people. Kids can go to school without worrying about another kid being sick. I mean, this is a big deal. This is not small peanuts. What about people who say those extensions were only supposed to be temporary? Everything can be temporary, but is that a good thing for the country, right? So the long term goal is to make sure we have an affordable and accessible health care system. People want to bring up different ideas on how to fix it. We should have those conversations, but at the end of the day, if you have an economic system that allows people to opt out because they're making a financial decision and they're saying this is too expensive, then you're not providing health care for the country. You know, affordability seems to be the word of the day in Washington, DC, and communities across the nation. What does that mean for you from a legislative standpoint? Well, people have asked me, you know, rep find them, what should I believe? Where should I listen to the news? And I tell them, look in your own house. And so I'm looking at my own house and I've got a daughter who's in college still and she comes home every weekend and shops our pantry. And then sends me a video of her haul, right? So she's seeing grocery prices go up. People are seeing them as they're going to the store and shopping this holiday season. We're seeing the impact of tariffs. We're seeing even in a Clackamas County here in Happy Valley where I live, we saw that a bond was not passed because people found that the bond wasn't affordable to them. So, you know, bad timing, people are making economic decisions. You come from a business and science background, although you did serve in the Oregon legislature. What's been the biggest adjustment for you moving from state politics to Washington, DC? Things are a lot less orderly. If you look at the proceedings of the Oregon House versus if you take a few minutes to look on C-SPAN, they're wildly different. You know, 60 members in the Oregon House, 435 members in the US House. It looks like a bunch of like mice milling around. There is actual legislative activity happening, but it's much less orderly. And you'll start to see now, I think, Republicans are on the run and they're starting to be a little more interested in bipartisanship. So you'll see them start to come over to the Democrat side a lot more than they did in the beginning. That's been a surprise to me. Let's get into that. We have seen some cracks in the MAGA base, including the exit of Marjorie Taylor Greene. We saw the pushback, even from conservative Republicans after the president's comments about Rob Reiner and his wife after they were murdered. What do you think you're seeing? Get more into that. What do you think you're seeing from the other side of the aisle? Well, I think we're hitting a breaking point, you know, as people again, as they go home, as they're talking with their constituents, a lot of Republicans ran from doing town halls. We actually did 21 in our district and held over 400 events from our district. But as they're starting to go out and as they're starting to get a little more heat, they're having to stand up. And we're also seeing that, you know, some of them are in seats like mine, that are swing seats, and they have to appeal to a broader electorate. You can't run and you can't hide now from their voting records. Democrats are in the minority in both the House and the Senate, but that could change in next year's midterms. How important do you think your race will be in that context? Critical. I mean, I won by two, a little over two points. This is a seat that, you know, comprises like almost one-third Democrats, almost one-third Republicans, and almost one-third non-affiliated independence. And what I've tried to say is in holding those 21 town halls that our office is accessible, that we want to hear from people, people have a legitimate concern about how government is or is not working for them, and what government should and should not do. My focus has been on affordability, lowering costs, improving the quality of life, bringing health care to the forefront of the conversation, and making sure that people can count on Oregon being a place that they can raise their children, and their children can come back home. You were adamant about opposing the President's attempts to deploy federal troops into Portland. Ultimately, after a number of court battles, those troops were not deployed to the ICE facility in South Portland, and the Texas troops were actually sent home. Do you see that as a victory? Well, it wasn't a victory if people had to leave their home for some foolishness. So the Guardsmen were Americans, Oregonians as well, and I wanted to make sure that when they leave and they are deployed, they are deployed for real issues to solve real problems and to help real emergencies, and that wasn't what was happening. The other thing I think is important is that we always just remain vigilant about keeping our streets safe, keeping our community safe, and that means safety for everyone. And so when you deploy people on a non-mission, you put them in harm's way, and you put the people in harm's way, and I simply disagreed with that. Welcome to your year in video, and you've alluded to this earlier in this conversation. You had more than 400 meetings and events, 21 town halls, why so many, and why are those meetings with constituents so important to you? Well, number one, this is a very large district. It includes Portland, it includes the Willamette Wine Valley, it includes Central Oregon. And I think the most important thing is that you need to have open lines of communication to the people that you serve. There are a lot of people obsessed with who somebody voted for. That has never been my issue. I've always felt like if Oregon put education first, if we focused on a strong economy, if we kept our Oregon values true to what we believe in, clean air, clean water, we would have a thriving state and economy. It's been my number one goal, that's all I have ever been concerned about. And I think I made sure that I kept my promise to be where the people needed me to be, and I think they've been pretty satisfied with that. You do have some Republican opposition in the 2026 race. They're not very well-known statewide, though. Name so far, Patty Adair, Joseph Lehman, Jonathan Lockwood, your district is considered a purple district. However, you did defeat Republican Lori Chavez-Deremer, who's now the president's labor secretary. Are you getting any support from the national party, especially in terms of fundraising for your race? Well, they've made it clear by putting me on the front line list that this race is a priority. This seat, keeping this seat is a priority, and getting to the magic number of 218 is a priority. Outside of the race. I mean, running for re-election is one thing. But I think the most important thing is continuing my commitment to serve. Doing both is very difficult. I mean, I'm also a mom. We have, I would love to be momming right now, I'm looking right outside my office here, and I see a bunch of boxes that I need to pull out and wrap presents. But it really is important that I've always said, put the people first, and everything else will fall in line. So that's what I've been focused on. We're going to take a short break. It will be right back with our conversation with Congresswoman Janelle Bynam. And we're back with our conversation with Congresswoman Janelle Bynam. You know, some Democrats have criticized the release of the Epstein files, which just happened. Not all the files were released, and there are heavy redactions in those files. I know this has been a major issue for Senator Wyden. What's your take on Epstein files in their release? Well, I believe the victims deserve justice. I believe the Department of Justice should follow the judicial instructions. And without that, I think I always remind people, if they come for them, if they come for them, they'll come for you. If they break the law here, they'll break the law over here. And so this lack of order, this chaos, this not following the law, I think is just emblematic of this administration and whether they think they have to follow the rules that they've been given. Law and order is something that Republicans talk a lot about, and I just don't see that in these cases. What have prominent Democrats, including Bill Clinton, as we've seen in some photos or expose as well as Republicans and other business leaders? I mean, that's not my job to defend poor behavior. And I'm not saying that anybody did anything. It hasn't been something that has been a thrust of my office because we've been focused on lowering costs, growing jobs, providing a high quality of life for Oregonians. But I will stand by the fact that the victims deserve justice, but it's not my job to defend anyone's behavior. Just a couple more questions here. As a Democrat, what do you think about the President renaming the Kennedy Center, the so-called Walk of Fame at the White House disparaging Democrats, including President Obama and Biden? What do you think about this whole trend that we're seeing coming out of the administration? You know, I feel that the President provides us a lot of distractions on a daily basis. And this feels very familiar to me because I've raised four children, one of whom is 15. This is my fourth 15-year-old. It feels like we're dealing with someone who's stuck in the teenage years and wants to distract us from what's really happening. We know that people are paying for, they're paying for influence and favors. We know that the President is personally enriching himself off of his office. We know that he is cutting things like snap benefits, cutting the Department of Education, cutting medical research, flip-flopping back and forth on whether China is our enemy or our friend or what we have to do with China. He's not delivering on the things that the average American really wants us to deliver on. And that, to me, is what is important. Focus on the people, focus on Americans, focus on making our lives better, not sending us down a whole bunch of tricky lanes just to distract us from your shenanigans. And last thing, what would be your priorities moving forward? If you're reelected in 2026, what do you want to get accomplished in the future in Congress? Well, we've been able to secure $160 million in funding for the district and we're fighting still for 34 million more. The main thing is to be able to continue to return dollars to the district, but Oregon lost 25,000 jobs recently. And to me, restoring the Oregon economy, ensuring that we have health care, ensuring that we have a strong educational system, that will make sure that we have a strong national defense, that we have a high quality of life, and that people can thrive and live well. It is as simple as that. Gentlemen, Janelle Bynum, thanks for joining me. All these plays are in a talk with you. I like yours.