Commentary: Will Oregon’s Lori Chavez-DeRemer be the first Cabinet official out?
Published 5:15 am Friday, February 27, 2026
In the year-plus of the second Trump administration, no Cabinet member — despite a year-long gusher of toxic headlines relating to many of that group — has yet resigned or been fired.
Speculation for months has centered on more than a dozen names, at various times and degrees of seriousness, about who will be first to leave.
Today, there’s some basis for looking at the only Oregonian in the group, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
That’s not exactly a consensus view. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been mentioned often, as have Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and others. Loud campaigns calling for the resignation of each have surfaced for months.
Chavez-DeRemer, a former one-term U.S. representative from Oregon, has not been as high-profile as any of them, and the toxic elements of her story could be considered less important from a governing or policy view than those of some of the others.
Still, the betting platform Polymarket pegged her prospect of being the first cabinet departure at 27.3% in mid-January.
What’s the case for an early departure for the former Oregon member of Congress?
They seem not to reach into her past. She had served without significant controversy on the Happy Valley City Council and through two terms as mayor, and she ran competitively twice for the state Legislature.
A Republican, in 2022 she won a U.S. House seat in a district specifically designed to elect a Democrat. When she lost the seat in 2024, the reasons mainly reflected the gap between the slightly Democratic-leaning district and national Republicans, more than with any concerns specific to Chavez-DeRemer.
The current problems developed, or at least went public, after she joined the Trump administration. Some relate to her job execution and policies. A group of Democratic senators (including Ron Wyden of Oregon) this month sent a letter to the department complaining of the secretary’s actions “rolling back safety regulations and systemically reducing enforcement efforts at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.” None of that was likely to hurt her standing with the president, however.
But that followed complaints about her management, involving staff incidents and styles that drew inquiries from the department’s inspector general. One report, for example, said that during a formal work trip back to Oregon, she took staffers to a Portland strip club. Another said she required assistants to undertake personal errands for her. She was accused last month of drinking alcohol in the workplace and having an extramarital affair with a subordinate. Through an attorney, Chavez-DeRemer strongly denied any claims of wrongdoing.
But then came more recent headlines about her husband, Shawn DeRemer. The New York Times reported that he has been barred from entering the Department of Labor headquarters building after a Jan. 24 report by the Washington Metropolitan Police Department about what was described as “forced sexual contact” in the department’s offices. Federal prosecutors, in the U.S. attorney’s office led by Jeanine Pirro, opted not to file charges.
The Times concluded in another article, “Morale is low among both political appointees and veteran staff members, some of whom said Ms. Chavez-DeRemer was rarely present at the department and seemed largely interested in her future political aspirations.”
The accumulation of incidents and optics have reached a level that would have resulted in an automatic ouster in most presidential administrations. The Trump administration, of course, is different. But there is reason to think Chavez-DeRemer might be a little more vulnerable to external pressure than some of the other Cabinet secretaries.
First, she is not personally or professionally especially close to Trump. She has been a loyal member of the administration, defending Trump on several fronts, but she’s not part of the inner circle the way Hegseth and Bondi seem to be.
She also doesn’t have a large national platform or support group. Kennedy, for example, had a significant personal constituency based on his activism on health and other issues; Chavez-DeRemer has a lower national profile, and so a smaller personal support base.
And the consequences of cutting her loose with the potential of Trump-damaging headlines as a result do not seem large.
So far, like all other members of the Cabinet, she has lasted for more than a year. Maybe she will stay in place for some time to come. Unlike in his first term, Trump seems reluctant to let Cabinet members go.
In the meantime, keep a watch on the betting markets.
Randy Stapilus has researched and written about Northwest politics and issues since 1976 for a long list of newspapers and other publications. A former newspaper reporter and editor, and more recently an author and book publisher, he lives in Carlton.
This article was originally published by Oregon Capital Chronicle and used with permission. Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom and can be reached at info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com.
