Extended interview with Janelle Bynum

Well, Representative Bynum, thanks for sitting down with us. We really appreciate it. I want to start by asking you about the national attention on this race. You had leader Jeff Rees come and campaign for you recently. There's a lot of national campaign groups from both parties invested in this race. What's it like for your campaign to have that kind of exposure? And what's it like for you personally? Well, I mean, I'm a mom of four. A state legislator, electrical engineer and small business owner. And this is my fifth election. And I've always had really big elections in the state. My first election back in 2016 was the largest and most expensive election for a state seat in the state's history. This is not new for me, right? I think what's really important to remember is that this is for the control of the house. And it's running right here through Oregon's fifth congressional district. I think we're seeing the major issues play out. Reproductive choice is top of mind for many people, housing, health care and the environment. Pulling for this race shows that there's no clear frontrunner. It's very, very close. So what's your strategy for appealing to independent voters or those who might be undecided middle of the road voters who really split their vote in terms of the parties they've historically voted for? Well, I'm used to serving in a purple district. I've served house district 39 slash 51 for the last eight years. And one of the things that I do is I just meet voters where they are. It means challenging the status quo, pushing forward with really practical solutions, being a bipartisan legislator, working across the aisle. So whether it was on the Chips Act, which was about 300 million in investment for Oregon, which generated $43 billion in economic investments for the state, or whether it was 23 public safety bills, or whether it was leading on reproductive health bills. I want to get your response now to the Chabas Dreamer campaign and some of the national Republican groups that are investing in this race. A lot of their attack ads are targeting your time as a state lawmaker, particularly over issues like drugs, drugs, crime, and homelessness. What do you say to voters in the district who are really worried and frustrated about those issues that I just mentioned and might be skeptical about how Oregon Democrats have handled those? Well, I'm a mom, first and foremost, and I have four kids, and I worry every day when they leave the house. Every time there's a particular example of when my son calls me, he's in college down at U of O. And when I get the phone call that's not on a Sunday or Wednesday, when we have agreed upon times to call, he'll call maybe on a Thursday. And last time I was like, are you okay? That's my mom instinct. And so I share all of the concerns that other moms and dads have in our state about safety. And the other thing is, you know, just from a political standpoint, like it's silly. Like there's no way I could be, you know, all of the crazy things they're reporting to me. And it really just kind of crosses a line. Everyone knows that moms and dads across the state are worried about their kids. I want to ask some questions about the economy now. What's the top of mind for voters across the country? What kind of policies do you support for bringing down costs for everyday hardworking Oregonians in this district? Housing, gas, groceries, you know, those prices are a huge issue in this election cycle that we hear in campaigns up and down the ballot? Well, first of all, it's important to think about when families are living just right on the edge. There's no room for anything extra to come into play. There's no room for, you know, a flat tire and increased insurance premium. There's no room for you to shrink the size of the cereal box when kids still need to eat. So when it comes to the economy, I think it's important to make sure we pass the farm bills, start tinkering around and dinking around with that and pass it so that kids are eating. That also takes pressure off of families. It's important that we continue with negotiating prescription drug prices. That's important. And it's also important that we continue growing our economy with good family wage jobs. And that's where I go back to my leadership, my bipartisan leadership on the Chips Act. The more that Oregon families have to work with it and they're not living on the margins, the better off their lives will be. It is very important for us to always keep top of mind that Americans are concerned that their children are not going to do as well as they've done. We have to continue to invest to take away those worries. In regards to health care, lowering the price of prescription drugs, that's something the Biden Harris administration has been really, you know, touting is an issue that they're very proud of. They want to continue that, you know, that kind of work of Kamala Harris has elected. If you're elected to Congress, what are some new priorities that you would want to support or bring to the table in regards to making health care more accessible, more affordable? Well, first of all, we need to make sure that we protect the Affordable Care Act. I have a 22-year-old daughter and, you know, the idea that not too long ago, you know, once she came of age, she would have to find her own insurance. As she goes through college and graduate school, now we have our kids who are protected until they're 26. That's huge. So making sure that we continue that. There's this other area of the role of private equity in health care, whether it's buying up small practices or consolidating practices, whether it's actually helping us, not really helping us, but forcing us to lose providers. We need to have the conversation on what role private equity is playing, whether it's in doctor's offices, dental offices, mental health care practices, testing centers, like when you get your blood tested or whatever for TB. All of those things, we're seeing a consolidation in the industry that is very concerning and people are losing access to health care because of it. In regards to reproductive health care, if Kamala Harris has elected president, if both houses of Congress are controlled by Democrats, would you support a law that would codify Roe versus Wade into national and into the national landscape, so it's protected federally? This is where my opponent and I disagree. I 100% support Roe being the law of the land across the country, full stop. And people have pointed to, oh, well, states can implement their own version. We know that, for instance, if you go and travel and visit another state, even though you're an Oregonian and you have coverage here, there's no telling what may happen to a mom who's pregnant and the reproductive health care she may need in Texas. We need to make sure that this is, that reproductive health care options are seamless across the country. I want to ask a question about military aid to Ukraine and Israel, very volatile conflicts going on in both of those regions. It's no telling what the landscape might look like when the next Congress is sworn in. Where do you stand on support for Ukraine and Israel? And are you prepared to take your place in Congress, if elected, and confront this massive foreign policy crisis? First of all, I believe that the United States needs to stand with its allies. And this for us is a choice between autocracy and democracy. And this is a country that stands for democratic principles. So we must stand with our allies. We know that trouble is in the region. It has been in the region. And it is personally as a mom, very difficult for me to see war playing out. And it's not just in Israel, it's not just in Ukraine. We're also seeing this in places like Haiti. This is not an isolated problem. I'm prepared to stand up for democracy around the world. All right. Representative Biden, thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you. A pleasure.