Democrat logs 35,000 miles in long-shot bid
REDMOND, Ore.—One of the largest U.S. congressional districts voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2016, yet an Oregon Democrat campaigning against a Republican incumbent doesn’t see it as hostile territory.
Buoyed by electoral wins by a couple of Democrats elsewhere in Trump territory, candidate Jamie McLeodSkinner is undaunted, traveling a district that’s as big as North Dakota in her Jeep and tiny trailer that she sometimes sleeps in.
McLeod-Skinner is enduring all this because she doesn’t think the incumbent is focused on the district’s issues. She’s driven 35,000 miles in 14 months of campaigning.
When a parade in the small town of Joseph (population 1,000) was set to start in July, she walked up to an antique convertible carrying Rep. Greg Walden, who’s running for his 11th term, and challenged him to a series of debates.
“I look forward to debating you. We’ll figure out a schedule that works,” Walden replied. Five weeks later, a debate has not been scheduled.
Nationally, Democrats are hoping a “blue wave” in November will give them a majority in Congress. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is financing selected candidates through its Red to Blue program , hoping to flip seats in Republicancontrolled districts.
McLeod-Skinner’s campaign isn’t one of them. If the Red to Blue’s 73 candidates are long shots, ones like McLeod-Skinner—running in very conservative districts—are real Hail Marys.
Walden, who typically wins around 70 percent of the vote, had a war chest currently totaling around $3.2 million in late June—31 times bigger than McLeod-Skinner’s.
“The biggest issue is the disparity in fundraising,” said Jeff Dense, professor of political science at Eastern Oregon University. Without money, she can’t afford a media campaign, Dense said, noting that eastern Oregon is peppered with Walden campaign signs.
“I just drove by one in east nowhere,” he said in a telephone interview.
In an interview at a coffee shop in Redmond—the town near where McLeodSkinner and her wife live— the candidate said she felt compelled to run because “our current representative is not focused on the district, not addressing the issues that folks in my district care about: health care, education, economic development.”
She accuses Walden of not speaking out for his constituents, including failing to oppose President Trump’s trade war that risks increasing tariffs on Oregon wheat. Walden last year also advocated the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
McLeod-Skinner has degrees in engineering, regional planning and in law. She calls herself a rural Democrat, with loyalty to constituents outweighing party loyalty. She’s not big on gun control, for example.