Lori Michelle Chavez-DeRemer (; née Chávez; born April 7, 1968) is an American politician who has served since 2025 as the 30th United States secretary of labor. A member of the Republican Party, she served from 2023 to 2025 as the U.S. representative for and from 2011 to 2019 as the mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon.
Chavez-DeRemer was the first Republican woman to represent Oregon in the House and one of the first two Hispanic women (alongside Andrea Salinas) elected to the United States Congress from Oregon. She served one term in the House before being defeated in 2024 by Janelle Bynum.
On November 22, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Chavez-DeRemer to serve as the U.S. secretary of labor in the second Trump administration. The U.S. Senate confirmed her on March 10, 2025, 67âÂÂ32.
Born on April 7, 1968, in Santa Clara, California, Chavez-DeRemer grew up in Hanford, California, and was raised by her father, Richard Chavez, described as a "Mexican American Teamster". Chavez-DeRemer graduated from Hanford High School in 1986. She earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from California State University, Fresno.
In 2004, Chavez-DeRemer was elected to Happy Valley, Oregon, city council. She was elected mayor in 2010 and reelected in 2014, serving until 2018.
In 2016, after incumbent Shemia Fagan opted not to seek reelection to her seat in Oregon House District 51, Chavez-DeRemer filed to run as a Republican, and won the primary unopposed. She lost the November general election by 564 votes to restaurateur Janelle Bynum, in Oregon's most expensive state House race of 2016.
In June 2017, Chavez-DeRemer formed a political action committee to explore a gubernatorial bid in 2018. In October 2017, she announced that she would not run for governor, clearing the primary for eventual nominee Knute Buehler.
In March 2018, Chavez-DeRemer announced her intention to again run for House District 51. She was unopposed in the Republican primary. She lost to Bynum by 2,223 votes.
Chavez-DeRemer won the May 2022 Republican primary for Oregon's 5th congressional district. The district, which had been represented for seven terms by moderate Democrat Kurt Schrader, was significantly altered by redistricting after Oregon gained a House seat. It lost its share of the Pacific coastline and the state capital of Salem, but stretched further south to gain rapidly growing Bend. Schrader lost the Democratic primary to progressive Jamie McLeod-Skinner and refused to endorse her in the general election.
Chavez-DeRemer defeated McLeod-Skinner in the November 8 general election.
Both Chavez-DeRemer and McLeod-Skinner lived just outside the district at the time of the election. Under the U.S. Constitution, members of the U.S. House must be residents of their state but do not have to live in the district they represent. During the campaign, Chavez-DeRemer promised to move to the district if elected; she did not keep this promise, instead maintaining two residences outside it.
Chavez-DeRemer ran for reelection in 2024 against Democratic nominee Janelle Bynum. The race was considered one of the most competitive in the U.S. House and drew more than $26 million in outside spending. The race was called for Bynum on November 8.
On November 22, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of Chavez-DeRemer for U.S. Secretary of Labor. The Teamsters Union endorsed her nomination; Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien said, "As the daughter of a Teamster, Lori Chavez-DeRemer knows the importance of carrying a union card and what it means to grow up in a middle-class household."
Chavez-DeRemer appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on February 19, 2025. When asked in her confirmation hearing about the previously proposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act, she said she did not support provisions overturning state right to work laws. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced Chavez-DeRemer's nomination in a 14–9 vote on February 27. The U.S. Senate confirmed Chavez-DeRemer by a 67–32 vote on March 10.
Chavez-DeRemer was sworn in as the 30th United States Secretary of Labor on March 11, 2025.
In August, Chavez-DeRemer praised Trump for firing Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) head Erika McEntarfer after the BLS published its July jobs report, which showed job numbers were being revised downward. Economists and analysts across the political spectrum criticized Trump for firing McEntarfer.
In January 2026, Chavez-DeRemer was the subject of an internal complaint accusing her of drinking alcohol in the workplace and having an extramarital affair with a subordinate. She was also accused of abusing her power to make aides run personal errands on her behalf. According to the New York Post, she was accused of directing her subordinates to create trips where she could spend personal time with friends and family. On April 18, 2025, during an official trip to Portland, Oregon, Chavez-DeRemer took staff to a strip club. Two of her aides were placed on administrative leave due to their potential complicity in her alleged actions. In February 2026, her husband, Shawn DeRemer, was banned from the Labor Department headquarters after at least two of the department's female employees alleged he had sexually assaulted them; a police investigation did not result in charges.
During the lead-up to the 2024 midterm elections, The New York Times called Chavez-DeRemer "a mainstream Republican" who pitched herself as an independent thinker. In September 2024, she was one of six Republicans to sign a bipartisan letter spearheaded by centrist members of the House of Representatives pledging to respect the results of the 2024 presidential election.
Along with Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, Chavez-DeRemer cosponsored legislation to reform federal cannabis laws. After the October 7 attacks, she was one of 412 House members to vote to express support for Israel.
In February 2025, Chavez-DeRemer said she personally opposes abortion but would oppose a national abortion ban and supports IVF treatments. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a group that opposes abortion, graded her views with a B.
A member of the House Agriculture Committee, Chavez-DeRemer was one of five House Republicans who signed an August 2023 letter to the committee leadership opposing the inclusion of the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act in the 2023 farm bill. The EATS Act would have overturned state and local laws regulating the production of agricultural goods traded across state lines, including farm animal welfare laws like California's Proposition 12 that restrict the sale of goods produced in intensive battery cages, gestation crates, and veal crates. The letter argued that the legislation would undermine states' rights and disadvantage farmers who had invested in complying with state laws.
In September 2024, Chavez-DeRemer was one of 11 House Republicans who signed a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines soliciting recommendations for the United States to outcompete China in the development of biotechnologies including cultivated meat. The letter said it is essential for national security for the U.S. to lead the world in alternative proteins research and development.
Chavez-DeRemer was the only Republican co-sponsor and one of three congressional Republicans to support the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), which business groups strongly opposed. The act would give workers more advantages when organizing or joining unions and bargaining with employers and weaken state right-to-work laws. She also cosponsored the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would expand the power of public sector unions. Teamsters President Sean O'Brien supported her nomination as Secretary of Labor, thanking President-elect Trump for the nomination and noting her support of the PRO Act. Some business interest groups opposed her nomination.
Chavez-DeRemer is married to Shawn DeRemer, an anesthesiologist. They have two children and live in Happy Valley. Chavez-DeRemer is a Roman Catholic. In March 2021, the DeRemers confirmed they had purchased the home planning for Chavez-DeRemer's retirement in Fountain Hills, Arizona under a mortgage agreement that required them to occupy the property as a primary residence after refinancing their home in Oregon as a primary residence two months earlier.
Chavez-DeRemer's husband, Shawn Remer, has been banned from entering the Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, D.C., since two female employees accused him of sexual assault, with one incident captured on office video feeds. As of mid-February 2026, Chavez-DeRemer is under investigation by her department's Inspector General office for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a member of her security team.
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