Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Sipa USA via AP Images
President Joe Biden speaks about his infrastructure plan at an Air Force hangar near Portland International Airport, April 21, 2022, in Portland, Oregon.
President Biden raised eyebrows over the weekend with his first endorsement of the 2022 election cycle, backing Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR), a corporate-friendly moderate who has opposed much of the White House’s agenda, and who is facing a primary challenger running on the very administration priorities he has shunned.
But Democrats in the district argue that Biden’s endorsement of Schrader over his opponent, attorney and 2018 congressional candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner, fits a pattern of the incumbent’s support coming largely from the corporate and political establishment outside the state, rather than from voters and officials on the ground.
“His endorsements are all from D.C., hers are from Oregonians,” said Eileen Kiely, the vice chair of the Deschutes County Democrats, one of four county parties that have backed McLeod-Skinner in the race. Kiely is also the secretary of the Democratic Party of Oregon, which has remained neutral.
Three local county party chairs are accusing other segments of the D.C. establishment of putting their thumb on the scale in the Schrader/McLeod-Skinner race. In a remarkable letter obtained by the Prospect, the chairs ask the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to “let Oregon Democrats decide who we want to represent us,” lobbing charges that the committee has been working on Schrader’s behalf.
Schrader is a named “frontline” member, meaning that the DCCC will work for his re-election in November. But the committee has not endorsed in the May 17 primary.
In February, the county chairs wrote, “the DCCC sent a campaign operative to the Deschutes and Linn County Democrats meetings and attempted to recruit volunteers for Schrader’s campaign.” This was described in a local report at the time. The action was part of what triggered the four county parties (Deschutes, Marion, Clackamas, and Linn, representing over 90 percent of the district’s voters) to engage in the unprecedented action of endorsing in the primary, which required a change in their bylaws.
In addition, the chairs allege that “the DCCC is funding a campaign staffer to work on Kurt Schrader’s team.” That staffer, a field coordinator, is working in Clackamas County, which contains many Democrats whom Schrader currently represents. One source indicated that the Schrader campaign was using paid canvassers rather than volunteers.
According to the letter, House Majority PAC, the super PAC that supports House Democrats, has also funded pro-Schrader Facebook ads to the tune of “tens of thousands of dollars.” House Majority PAC is already in hot water in Oregon for spending $1 million on television ads in an open-seat primary on behalf of a neophyte candidate named Carrick Flynn, who only recently moved back to the state. Flynn is also being aided by at least $7 million from a crypto-aligned super PAC. The Flynn ads were seen as one of the first times that House Majority PAC has stepped into a contested Democratic primary. But their lower-key support for Schrader would be the second example in Oregon this cycle.
House Majority PAC has not responded to a request for comment. In a statement to the Prospect, DCCC spokesperson Johanna Warshaw said, “The DCCC’s core mission is to re-elect Democratic members like Congressman Schrader, who has been critical in advancing President Biden’s agenda—from fighting to lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs to protecting a woman’s right to choose.”
THE ARDOR FOR SCHRADER among Democrats in Washington is hard to square with his record. Since Biden’s inauguration, Schrader has voted against raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He was the deciding vote in committee against prescription drug pricing reform, and rejected the notion that his substantial donations from the pharmaceutical industry were the reason why. (Schrader’s grandfather was once a leading executive at Pfizer.) He repeatedly expressed doubts about the now-moribund Build Back Better agenda when it was in its formative stages; last September, he told the Daily Beast that he would have difficulty supporting any bill over $1 trillion, even below the red lines of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). He was part of the “Unbreakable Nine” House Democrats who tried to force a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, part of an effort that ultimately did decouple that from the rest of the Biden agenda. Just as progressives predicted, the Senate has since bottled it up.
Schrader also initially voted against the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, one of just two House Democrats to do so (though eventually he did support a final vote on the package). He even called the impeachment of President Trump for inciting the January 6th Capitol Riot a “lynching” of the former president, something he later apologized for saying.
McLeod-Skinner, a rural Democrat who in 2018 ran in the most right-leaning district in the state and improved on the previous cycle’s performance by 26 points, said in an interview that the agenda that Schrader has consistently opposed is “not just the president’s agenda, it’s the agenda of the American people. That’s why people are surprised and disappointed.”
In the campaign, McLeod-Skinner has stressed fighting the climate crisis, support for unions, campaign finance reform, and social infrastructure spending, all areas where Schrader has differed from the mainstream Democratic viewpoint. She has said that Schrader has gone so far to the right that running to his left just means that you’re a normal Democrat.
In communications, McLeod-Skinner’s campaign has called Schrader “Oregon’s version of Joe Manchin,” but she explained to the Prospect that the characterization was somewhat unfair to Manchin, who at least owns up to his stances. As The Intercept has reported, in campaign ads Schrader has depicted himself as a champion of “working to rebuild the safety net,” “making sure Medicare can negotiate lower drug prices,” and “leading the fight to get big money out of politics,” all of which are at odds with his own votes and actions.
The latter claim, denouncing big money in elections, is particularly jarring, given Schrader’s campaign donors. Sludge reported that Schrader is the treasurer of the Blue Dog PAC, which during his tenure has given $750,000 to a super PAC named Center Forward Committee that is funding ads for his re-election. Another major contributor to Center Forward is the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry’s leading lobbying group.
Mike Selvaggio, who represents UFCW Local 555, which has endorsed McLeod-Skinner, joked that “we’ve seen Big Pharma toss over half a million dollars in to communicate to voters why Schrader is the person to fight Big Pharma.”
Schrader’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, although in a press release Schrader wrote that “I appreciate President Biden’s confidence and support” and that “I look forward to continuing to work with the President on lowering the high cost of prescription drugs, addressing the high cost of housing and childcare, and tackling climate change and the wildfires that have devastated our community.”
SKINNER-MCLEOD SAID about the Biden endorsement that “the feedback we’re getting from folks at the doors is that it’s backfiring. Democrats who fully respect President Biden are saying, ‘Stay in your lane. This is for Oregonians to decide.’”
That sentiment was echoed by stakeholders in the district. Kiely, whose Deschutes County just turned blue over the past couple of years, said that Schrader refers to people like her as “the activist left,” but insisted that they were engaging in the old-school politics of persuasion that is critical to flagging Democratic hopes in November. “We stand on the doorsteps and talk to people about real problems,” she said. “When we talk about progressive issues, they love it.” In districts like these, Kiely maintains, blanketing TV ads and mailers won’t matter as much as a personal connection. “Those of us making progress in rural America are those investing that time.”
Schrader, Kiely says, has shied away from her rural county, despite it being new territory for him after redistricting. More than half of the district is new compared to his current turf. Since 2021, the Deschutes County Democrats have only seen Schrader in one Zoom call in January, and a day of photo ops with elected officials. When they held an endorsement meeting for the primary, instead of showing up, Schrader sent a video.
Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District got slightly more Republican in redistricting. The district went for Biden in 2020 by about nine points. Skinner-McLeod argues that she is better positioned to attract rural voters, regardless of party affiliation. In her 2018 run, she won Trump precincts. “My wife and I live in a rural area on a gravel road,” she said. “Farmers know me, they tease me about being their favorite Democrat. It comes down to showing up and helping people with the challenges that they’re facing.”
Selvaggio added that the Biden endorsement “represents a disconnect between Oregonians and D.C. politicians.” He said that McLeod-Skinner had a clear vision that connects with the district’s voters. When asked what he might say to Biden about his endorsement, Selvaggio said, “We understand the value of passing an agenda through Congress and keeping Democrats in power. I think there’s value in maintaining the Democratic majority, but if we don’t look closely at the people we’ve got there, that is of less value.”
