The storm clouds forming over Lori Chavez-DeRemer have only grown in recent months, culminating Monday with the longtime Oregonian resigning as U.S. labor secretary after 13 months in office amid a swirl of whistleblowers’ allegations of professional misconduct.
The accusations of government-funded travel for personal pleasure, drinking during work hours, an extra-marital affair with her bodyguard. The reports that she was an absentee boss, and that she had allegedly directed young female staff to “pay attention” to her husband and father, who reportedly sent them uncomfortable text messages. Her husband’s ban from stepping foot in the Labor Department after several female staffers complained that he made unwanted sexual advances toward them.
To Chavez-DeRemer’s opponents, her departure has been a long time coming. To her supporters, these shocking allegations — one after the other, month after month — are nothing but part and parcel of Washington, D.C.’s political game.
“I don’t pay any attention to unsubstantiated rumors,” said Ross Hemminger, an Oregon resident who moved from Washington, D.C. last year and a board member of the LGBT conservative group, Log Cabin Republicans. “I don’t pay attention to gossip.”
“I’m sure you’re going to talk to a lot of people who have not nice things to say,” Hemminger continued. But to Hemminger, Chavez-DeRemer is “an incredible force of nature. … Oregon was really lucky to have her in Congress. The country was really lucky to have her as labor secretary.”
As the news settles that Chavez-DeRemer is out after the past three months of accusations, Oregonians have a range of reflections about her time in office. She is the third cabinet member since last month to leave, after President Donald Trump fired Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Nationally, she is the lowest profile and least well-known of the three.
‘How fast she climbed’
Jake Weigler, a Democratic political consultant in Portland, said he was not surprised by Chavez-DeRemer’s resignation and the scandal and reports of mismanagement. An inspector general’s investigation is expected to conclude soon.
“I think it shows how fast she climbed,” Weigler said. He notes that Chavez-DeRemer went from working from 2010 to 2018 as the volunteer mayor of Happy Valley, with a population of 22,000 when she left; to losing her bids for election to the Oregon Legislature; to being “catapulted” to a two-year term representing Oregon’s 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives starting in 2023, before losing reelection. After Trump’s nomination, she became labor secretary in March 2025.
“All of a sudden she was running a massive federal agency and probably didn’t have the grounding to do that competently,” Weigler said. “You suddenly have a huge amount of power, and it’s very easy to take a misstep.”
Chavez-DeRemer, 58, grew up in the San Joaquin Valley region of California. She has said she knew what a hard day’s work looked like, listing among her first jobs a role at a peach-packing plant. She said she became the first in her family to graduate from college when she earned a degree in management from California State University, Fresno. Soon after, she married her “high school sweetheart,” Shawn DeRemer.
In 2000, the two moved to Oregon, and Chavez-DeRemer continued to take care of their twin daughters as her husband launched his anesthesiology career after finishing his residency in California. The couple started their own medical office, Anesthesia Associates Northwest, in 2005.
Chavez-DeRemer also took her first venture into government by becoming a member of the Happy Valley parks committee in 2002. In 2004, she joined the Happy Valley City Council, before running for and winning the job of mayor in 2010 and ultimately serving two years in Congress more than a decade later.
With the lack of experience Chavez-DeRemer had in running a big agency, Weigler said he can see how she or anyone could “very quickly step in it.”
Chavez-DeRemer’s attorney, Nick Oberheiden, didn’t respond to a request for comment Tuesday. He told national media Monday that his client didn’t resign because she broke the law, but rather to allow the Labor Department to remain “fully focused” on its mission and continue “without distraction.”
White House spokesperson Steven Chueng said on X that Chavez-DeRemer had done a “phenomenal job in her role.” The Labor Department didn’t respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Chavez-DeRemer also hasn’t commented about any specific allegations, but she said in a post on X Monday that she delivered big wins for American workers. She added that it had been an honor to “work for the greatest President of my lifetime.”
Disappointment back home
Angela Martin, director of HereTogether, a coalition of nonprofits and businesses fighting to reduce homelessness in the Portland area, said she was “ready to be pleasantly surprised” when Chavez-DeRemer was confirmed as labor secretary, as a Republican backed by some labor unions. But as the months progressed, all Martin said she felt was disappointment.
“Lori Chavez-DeRemer was clearly following the handbook that the president gave her — rolling back workplace regulations, eliminating DEI,” Martin said.
Martin said she saw Chavez-DeRemer do nothing to support social service workers, who can work in dangerous conditions for so little pay that they’re on the brink of being unable to afford housing themselves. Martin said she also saw the secretary do nothing to improve the ability of people who are homeless and wanting to join the labor force and establish their own housing.
“I want the public to understand that every single day there is somebody who is homeless who wants to work and if we are not there to help make that possible, to build the bridge, … we are missing the opportunity to help people to escape homelessness.”
Some unions, such as the AFL-CIO, approached Chavez-DeRemer’s appointment in early 2025 with caution, but said they were keeping an open mind and willing to see what she could accomplish. But this week, the AFL-CIO implied that Chavez-DeRemer had failed in her role.
“When we’re in a crisis of costs going up, job insecurity due to AI and technology, and uncertainty across the economy, we need a labor secretary who understands working people and will work to make our lives better — not just be a rubber stamp for corporations’ wish lists and gut the protections we count on,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, in a statement after Chavez-DeRemer stepped down.
Oregon AFL-CIO officials said they had no additional comment, pointing only to Shuler’s statement.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, expressed clear disapproval this week of Chavez-DeRemer.
“The only thing steady about this administration is its continued and blatant abuse of the law. Chavez-DeRemer, whose term was plagued with widespread misconduct, was no exception,” Wyden said in a written statement. “Oregonians deserve a labor secretary that cares more about protecting workers than executing Trump’s agenda and getting wine delivered to their hotel room.”
A ‘caring mom side’
Conversely, Hemminger, the member of the Log Cabin Republicans, said he saw Chavez-DeRemer engaged in traveling the country and fighting for the American worker. He said he met her in 2024, when she was a congresswoman and was sponsoring a bill that would reverse dishonorable military discharges for LGBTQ+ people during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era. Shortly before meeting Chavez-DeRemer, he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
“Obviously, it was a very difficult time for me,” Hemminger said. “Even though we were talking about work and stuff, that sort of caring mom side came out of her and you really knew this is a person who actually cares about people.”
Chavez-DeRemer is the sixth Oregonian since the territory became a state to sit on a presidential cabinet, according to the Oregon Historical Society. The list includes the appointment of Neil Goldschmidt as transportation secretary under President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and Don Hodel as energy secretary and later interior secretary under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
Chavez-DeRemer’s departure from Trump’s cabinet means less influence for Oregon on the national stage, said Chandler James, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Oregon. James said Chavez-DeRemer moved here many years ago, has seen Oregon’s problems and established connections with many of its people. Now, that influence is gone.
“I think having a connection is beneficial for political access, for achieving goals that Oregonians want,” James said. “So this is a loss for the state of Oregon, in terms of access to the Trump administration.”
