Defeated Oregon Blue Dog Kurt Schrader is delusional. He was one of only two Democrats to join the Republicans last week to vote against a very moderate package of gun safety proposals, just as he was one of the only Democrats to vote against raising the minimum wage and to vote against lowering the cost of prescription drugs. There are few Democrats in Washington more out of touch with what his own constituents want than Schrader is. So he lost, definitively, the only incumbent to lose a congressional seat so far this year-- 57.1% to 42.9%.
And now he's bitter and vindictive and blaming everyone but himself-- from his constituents who rejected his Republican-lite conservativism to the Democratic Party for turning "socialist." I might add, that not only did the DCCC try to salvage his miserable campaign but that he was the first, and, at the time, only, candidate for Congress who Biden had endorsed. So far he hasn't endorsed the woman who defeated him, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, and i doubt he will. In fact in an interview with a local TV station, KATU, he said he will probably endorse a crackpot independent, Betsy Johnson, in the gubernatorial election, where Oregon's richest citizen, multi-billionaire Phil Knight, is attempting to buy the state government through the crazed Johnson.
During the interview he complained that the state legislature "put him" into a bluer district that included parts of the Portland Metro and all of Bend. But the state legislature didn't "put him" anywhere; he chose to run in OR-05, instead of OR-4 or OR-06, parts of which he had represented in the past, basically because each was too blue for his right-of-center politics.
OR-04 is now D+9
OR-05 is now D+3
the newly-created OR-06 is D+7
Schrader, the first Oregon congressional incumbent to lose a primary in over 4 decades, gravitated to the least Democratic-leaning district of the 3, but Democratic voters there overwhelmingly rejected his conservatism, lack of interest in his constituents and his grotesque corruption. He told KATU that he thinks "the Democratic Party has moved quite a bit to the left moving out from underneath me... The socialist wing of the party is taking over and that’s their opportunity to elect somebody different... We ran a textbook campaign. It showed good results in part of the district that I already represented that are suburban/rural, but you move me into Portland, that's not Kurt Schrader's crowd, per se. Neither is Bend. Bend's extremely liberal-- a lot of folks there from Seattle and California in the last 10 years, and I think that made a huge difference. They were not responsive to a message of trying to get things done, work across the aisle."
Trying to get things done? Like blocking cheaper drug prices, blocking gun safety regulations, clocking an increased minimum wage. That's what Kurt Schrader has "gotten done." Now he says the woman who beat him won't win in November-- please help prove him wrong by contributing to Jamie's campaign here. He's utterly out of touch with Oregonians and Americans but perfectly in synch with DC lobbyists. He disparagingly referred to the 37,476 voters who rejected him for McLeod-Skinner-- including thousands of his former constituents-- as "activist extreme left Democrats-- don't confuse them with the facts." He angrily claimed the voters "had an agenda." He kept claiming Portland is why he lost although the district doesn't include Portland, just some Portland suburbs.
Asked if the Republicans have a better chance of taking the seat now, he became very animated: "I certainly do! I think the red wave begins in Oregon, Oregon's fifth district," he declared.
Now McLeod-Skimmer will face Trumpist Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who won her primary with 29,899 votes. Talk about being out of touch! This one lives in a gated community and is strongly aligned with Trump, and is spouting Republican talking points & dog whistles-- including taking away women's right to choice--rather than offering solutions for the challenges that Oregonians are facing. When KATU reached out to McLeod-Skimmer about Schrader's interview and her own race, She told them she "won the primary because our campaign focused on the issues that Oregonians across the political spectrum care about most: lowering the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs, preventing wildfires that have devastated our state, and standing up for hardworking Oregon families. My opponent Lori Chavez-DeRemer wants to do the opposite. She supports an extreme, near total ban abortion, threatens Oregonians’ access to quality, affordable health care, and opposes minimum wage increases to help working families keep up with the cost of living. We won the primary by fighting for common sense Oregon values and that’s how we plan to win in November."
And a last word on Kurt Schrader, hopefully. I bet he never understands that this is why Oregon voters lost confidence in him:
