Janelle Bynum is a businesswoman who has advocated for clean energy jobs, helped pass clean air laws, and fought against dangerous fossil fuel and pesticide pollution as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Florida A&M University and her MBA from University of Michigan, Bynum moved to Happy Valley, Oregon to help run her family’s small business of four McDonald’s franchises. She was elected to the state legislature in 2016 and has worked hard to protect women’s reproductive freedom and eliminate structural barriers for people from marginalized communities to get into public service. She also voted to create clean energy jobs, strengthen air quality protections, ban offshore drilling and fracking, and phase out chlorpyrifos.
As a representative, Bynum will work to pass policies that strengthen U.S. clean manufacturing, create good paying union jobs in clean energy, and protect our environment. She earned an 83% lifetime score on Oregon LCV’s Environmental Scorecard for the Oregon Legislature. Bynum is the first Black person to represent Oregon in Congress.
Bynum joins the U.S. House after defeating Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who earned a 31% score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard in 2023.
“When the fires were especially bad several summers ago in Oregon, it meant my daughter, who has asthma, couldn’t breathe if she went outside. As a mother, I envision a different future than that for my children.” – LCVAF Questionnaire