The MeidasTouch Podcast - Congresswoman Bynum On Defeating MAGA

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas interviews Democratic star from Oregon’s 5th Congressional District Janelle Bynum who defeated the MAGA candidate Lori Chavez-DeRemer (now Labor Secretary) who held the seat before her. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. If Democrats plan to take back the House of Representatives, they're going to have to flip seats. So I think we should

study the Democrats in the House who have been able to actually flip seats to see what they've done, and maybe that shows a roadmap. Why don't we just take a look, for example, at Oregon's 5th Congressional District? And it's been in the news a lot lately because it used to be held by a MAGA Republican Congresswoman, and that MAGA Republican Congresswoman, she'd like to pretend that she wasn't really MAGA. She liked to claim that she stood on the side of labor. I was always very suspicious of that shtick. And someone who was very suspicious of it was someone who ran against her. Now the Democratic congresswoman from the fifth who flipped it, who called her out in the debates,

Congresswoman Janelle Bynum, now a Democrat, after flipping that seat from Oregon's 5th Congressional District. And you may know about that district also in the sense that Lori Chavez de Riemer, now the Labor Secretary, although she's not looking out for the interests of labor, was that MAGA Republican Congresswoman pretending not to be MAGA in Oregon. She claimed to be on the side of labor. that MAGA Republican congresswoman pretending not to be MAGA in Oregon, she claimed to be on the side of labor. But do y'all remember we covered this on the Midas Touch podcast before the confirmation hearing where all of a sudden she said she's on the side of the oligarchy and she no longer supports the PRO Act. Remember this moment where Rand Paul,

MAGA Republican Rand Paul, said the following to her. Let's play this clip. So you no longer support the aspect of the PRO Act that would have overturned state right to work laws? Yeah, there were so many parts. That's a yes. Yes, sir. The Secretary of Labor no longer supports the piece of legislation most important to labor and was pretending to support it in Oregon. So who was calling her out? Who knew that this was going on? Well, let's show you the moment where that seat flip. Let's play. Fox 12 has now called a closely watched race in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Our political analyst, John Horvick, is projecting that Janelle Bynum will oust the incumbent for the Oregon Congressional District 5 seat. Fox 12's Spencer Schott was at Bynum's victory speech today. Spencer, what did she have to say? Well, Bynum says it's an honor to win this election,

and she's excited to continue the work that she started here at the Oregon State House, but now on a national stage over in D.C. We're joined by Congresswoman Janelle Bynum from Oregon's 5th Congressional District. You knew you were warning people. The people knew. The people, though, voted for you, so they got it. But you were telling everybody who she really was.

Huh? Feel vindicated? Well, yeah. I mean, she was a fraud and a fake. And now is our labor secretary. And tell us about how damaging that is for labor. Well, you know, it's it's really curious. I'm I'm concerned how labor will recover. And labor is supposed to represent working families in this country. So we have the 40-hour work week. We have protections against children being exploited

in labor. We have protections now for overtime. We have all of those things because of the modern labor movement. And, you know, sometimes it feels like this administration, not sometimes, they want to go to a period in time where things just weren't fair for the average working American. And I think that's where she's going to take us. Tell us, how did you do it? What's the playbook? It was a red district. It's in Oregon. It's a blue state, but it was a red spot or purple.

What in the world was going on and how did you do it? What's the secret? So I'm a mom. I'm an electrical engineer. I'm a four-term state legislator and now congresswoman. Here's the thing that matters the most that people need to remember. This is all about math, pure and simple. And so I had run against Lori Chavez de Reimer twice before and had two more very difficult elections in a purple seat. You have to, number one, know where you can win, which precincts you can win in. That's kind of the math part. The other part is the messaging. I'm a mom. I've got two kids in college and they're trying to make their way in the world. And I've just talked about the real world things that we are experiencing as a

working family. And so that's why I focused on costs, jobs, quality of life across the political spectrum. Doesn't matter whether you're red, blue, independent. That was the message that resonated with people. They wanted to know that a real and authentic working person was going to represent them in Congress. What are you hearing from your constituents now? Because as we've said, it was represented previously by a Republican, which means there were a lot of people who voted Republican in your district. And now they're seeing Medicaid under attack. They're seeing Elon Musk take their private information and call Social Security a Ponzi scheme, treat veterans like crap as they fire these government workers. They claim that it's

for performance reasons, which is basically just defaming them. People are seeing their pensions and 401ks struggle and suffer. What are you hearing? What's the sentiment? What are your constituents saying? Well, we had two town halls this weekend, and I've made thousands of calls across the district. One that I remember the most is a mom telling me that she hoped that her son would build like a mother-in-law unit or get a house with an extra unit on it because her social security wasn't keeping up with the rise in rent. And she was scared. Another man this weekend at the town hall said he was concerned as to whether his social

security money would show up in his account. So people are scared. Chaos has been sown. And I think the people deserve better than that. What's also really important is this brain drain that the Trump administration has initiated. We in Oregon experience wildfires. We need people getting ready for wildfire season to protect life, to protect property, to protect our air. And they've let everybody go. That makes zero sense. So people are angry and they want us to fight. You've always stood up for the Department of Education. You've always stood up for the American worker in general and American people, but the Department of Education near and dear to your heart. I know people are scared that, you know, totally abolished. What does that

mean? Linda McMahon, you know, the WWE head who's got her own issues is out there mocking it. And it just seems that Trump and his billionaires beat down on what? They're beating down on poor kids and disabled kids and giving kids lunches. I mean, that's who they go after so that they and their billionaire friends can party with their, you saw they did the pink Birkin bag party in Mar-a-Lago with these gigantic Birkin bags that they're celebrating. That's what they're doing out there. They just having a good old time. Reminds me of kids in middle school, but here's the problem. Number one, Linda McMahon didn't even know what the IDEA stood for. And that is the law that protects disabled children and makes sure that they get a fair and free appropriate education in this country. Full stop. Number two, what they're trying to do is keep people suspicious of education and keep people undereducated.

And educated populace can challenge its government. And they don't want that. And then the third thing is they're trying to move us back where we don't have investments in the latest research. You know, when I went to the Library of Congress, one of the things that's up on the ceiling in one of the rooms, it talks about the United States' contribution to the world. And the picture that it has there is of science. This is what we do. We innovate, we research, we build the best and the brightest, and they're trying to take us back. Lots of people, and I'm sure at these town halls, a lot of people are saying, you know, we want people who are fighting. We want, we want fighters. You know, obviously Democrats don't control the house and the Senate. They can't subpoena.

You can't set the agenda. We don't control the White House. But people are saying, we don't care. We know that. And they shouldn't care. So what does it mean to you to fight? What's your message to other Democrats, though, too? And how do you interpret that fight?

So, number one, there is some personal responsibility in this, because many of these purple districts, like mine, some of them went to Trump and they still voted for a Democrat. So people are going to have to decide what they want next time. But most importantly, Republicans across the country need to be able to stand up and push back. They shouldn't be able to just sit down and get away with walking away and saying, oh, well, I think things are going great because you know damn well they're not going great. When your seniors are upset, when your young people aren't having a chance, when you're picking on the disabled, and when you're letting our life and property go up in flames and you're not doing anything about it, Republicans themselves should still

be upset at all of this. And we have to push them. You either have to push them to move or push them out. How do they say it? You either need to let me help you out or let me help you out. You know, finally, I'm seeing all of these travel advisories now being issued from foreign countries, basically saying, hey, they're citizens. You go to the United States, you may end up in an ICE detention center or get sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador, and you may not ever be heard from again. Also, you know, it's dangerous in the U.S. now as they're gutting essential government services. There's measles outbreaks in certain states now as there's someone running the health department who doesn't like health. I don't know. I'm not sure where the question is going other than what the heck is going on and what are you going to do about it?

We live in the greatest country on earth, I believe. And I think this is a time for us to all band together and be proud of what we've built as a country instead of trying to tear it down. And part of why I originally ran was this sense of patriotism to stop Trump, to stop his evil acts, and to put forth a better way of life for our young people, and to showcase all of the great things that this country has to offer and has built for the world. I am a much more optimistic person, maybe than the average person. I don't think you should be in this job if you're not an optimist. But I believe in the greatness of America. I believe in the greatness of our young people. I believe in the beauty of America.

And so stopping people and making them think twice about moving across our borders is actually very harmful. So I just say, again, let us help you out or let us help you out. My Republican colleagues need to stand up and Democrats need to get very, very focused about flipping these seats so that we get the numbers back. You flipped it. You showed the roadmap and I'm hoping and I'm confident people will see what you did. Follow that model. Congresswoman Janelle Bynum, thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers.

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