Thirty minutes south of Portland, as rain pattered down from gray skies, Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Republican of Oregon, was at a wedding venue railing against Democrats in her state for decriminalizing hard drugs and accusing them of failing to support local law enforcement.
Progressive experiments with policing, Ms. Chavez-DeRemer told small-business owners gathered for a round-table discussion last week, were largely to blame for the rising crime, overdoses and homelessness that have many Oregonians fed up.
“If you’re going to decriminalize hard drugs across the state, we’re going to pay a price for that,” Ms. Chavez-DeRemer, a first-term congresswoman battling to hold her seat in a highly competitive House district, said to the half-dozen people gathered around a U-shaped banquet table under crystal chandeliers. “We have to make sure that we’re supporting our law enforcement officers.”
While Portland has struggled for years to shake its national reputation as a city in crisis, recent reporting actually finds that homicides and gun violence have decreased since last year, mirroring a national trend of declining violent crime. Still, opioid overdoses across Oregon have soared in each of the last five years, according to the state’s public health department.
And regardless of the facts, Ms. Chavez-DeRemer — like dozens of other Republicans in competitive races across the country, including former President Donald J. Trump — is leaning heavily into a law-and-order message to try to gain the upper hand against her Democratic opponent.
