A6 THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2022
“A lot of folks in
Central Oregon haven’t
felt like there’s been
someone who really
gets Central Oregon.”
Congress
Continued from A1
Rural life has always suited Cass,
who spent time at a family home in Jor-
dan Valley. The smell of the sagebrush
and juniper trees remind her of home
and her childhood. McLeod-Skinner
said she too appreciates the “indepen-
dence and interdependence” that is
required of life in rural communities,
which is part of her political philoso-
phy as well.
The couple have strong ties to Cen-
tral Oregon. McLeod-Skinner’s mother
lives in Bend and Cass’s parents live
in Redmond. They made the move to
the ranch property in 2019, before re-
districting put new lines on the map
and created a district that gave Mc-
Leod-Skinner an opening.
“A lot of folks in Central Oregon ha-
ven’t felt like there’s been someone who
really gets Central Oregon,” she said.
A political future McLeod-Skinner,
55, is no stranger to Oregon politics,
having lost two high-profile races in
previous elections.
In 2018, she won 39 percent of the
vote in a long shot bid to unseat Greg
Walden in the heavily-Republican
2nd Congressional District, which
included most of eastern and south-
ern Oregon. She garnered press cov-
erage for driving 35,000 miles during
the campaign, towing her teardrop
trailer and often sleeping overnight in
the state’s most far flung locales. Two
years after that defeat, she finished
third in the Democratic primary for
secretary of state.
McLeod-Skinner said she didn’t
move to Central Oregon with a po-
litical ambition. She says she only
thought about running for Congress
after the new district was drawn and
potential constituents told her she
could be a better fit for it than its offi-
cial incumbent, fellow Democrat Kurt
Schrader, who lives in the Portland
suburb of Canby.
After studying the lines and her
prospects, she decided to dive in. She
says the 5th District, with its wide
swath of issues, people and places,
is the kind of district she has always
wanted to represent. It includes both
Redmond and Bend and much of De-
schutes County, crosses the Cascades
and includes parts of the eastern Willa-
mette Valley all the way up to the sub-
urbs south of Portland.
“What I love about it is that it’s got
red, blue and purple areas,” said Mc-
Leod-Skinner. “It’s one of the most
— Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a Democrat
who’s running for Congress
ABOVE: Jamie
McLeod-Skinner,
left, and her wife
Cass McLeod-
Skinner work on
moving hay for
their goats at
Crooked River
Ranch on Oct. 13.
LEFT: Jamie and
Cass McLeod-
Skinner sit on the
front porch of their
home in Crooked
River Ranch on
Thursday, Oct. 13,
2022.
Ryan Brennecke/
The Bulletin photos
evenly drawn districts in the country.”
In an upset, she defeated Schrader,
who was endorsed by President Joe
Biden, in the primary and is now
locked in a close general election bat-
tle with Republican Lori Chavez-
DeRemer of Happy Valley.
But the tight race is part of what ex-
cites McLeod-Skinner. She says she en-
joys talking politics with people who
disagree with her, and said that break-
ing out of her “bubble” is crucial to
having productive debate.
“We’re not having a complete con-
versation if we’re not having those dif-
ferent ideas,” said McLeod-Skinner.
DECLINE OF THE RURAL DEMOCRAT
The Democratic Party has gone
through lean times in Oregon political
history, though up until the 1970s they
were often just as likely to come from
rural areas as populated, urban parts of
the state. The heavily-unionized tim-
ber industry provided reliable votes for
Democratic candidates and many rural
residents relied on government pro-
grams and investment often supported
by Democrats.
According to Jim Moore, director
of the Tom McCall Center for Civic
Engagement at Pacific University, that
changed in the 1970s and accelerated in
the 1980s with the collapse of the tim-
ber industry, Reaganism and the bur-
geoning environmental movement.
Gerrymandering hasn’t helped ei-
ther. In Oregon, nearly all rural voters
have been herded into the massive 2nd
District, but are heavily outnumbered
in the others.
Even the 5th District was drawn by
Democrats to connect the Portland
suburbs with growing metropolitan
centers in Central Oregon.
“It was designed to link cities, not re-
ally to pay attention to what is between
them” said Moore.
Often, that means that the rural vot-
ers are so outnumbered that represen-
tatives don’t need to earn their votes or
champion their causes in Washington.
Even Chavez-DeRemer, who lives
in Clackamas County, just outside of
Portland, has focused mostly on subur-
ban issues during the campaign.
McLeod-Skinner has tried to pick up
votes in places where Democrats have
seen their support erode in recent de-
cades, but Moore says that is an uphill
battle.
“She lives the ideal of many liberal
city dwellers: Grow your own vegeta-
bles and be part of a CSA,” said Moore,
referring to community-supported ag-
riculture. “It’s not threatening to urban
voters, but I’m not sure how it will at-
tract rural voters.”
In a year when national Republi-
cans are spending big on congressional
races, McLeod-Skinner has more than
kept pace. She’s raised $2.72 million to
$1.89 million for Chavez-DeRemer.
Moore is interested in how the elec-
tion will turn out. He believes Chavez-
DeRemer is not a strong candidate
given the make-up of voters in the
district. But the economic realities in
2022 has turned a lot of Americans off
the controlling party in races across
the state. If the ‘red wave’ reaches
high enough, even blue-hued Demo-
cratic-leaning parts of Oregon could
change color.
“I love the 5th (District,)“ said
Moore. “Can’t wait to see how it votes.”
█
Reporter: ttrainor@redmondspokesman.com
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