Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s (R-OR) top immigration policy staffer attended the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) where thousands cheered Vice President Kamala Harris in her effort to defeat Donald Trump.
Senior Legislative Assistant Francisco Flores-Pourrat attended the convention Tuesday night during addresses from President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, according to photographs shared with Breitbart News.
Flores-Pourrat handles the moderate first-term Republican congresswoman’s immigration and border security portfolio as well as abortion. He has been with the office since November 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Senior Legislative Assistant Francisco Flores-Pourrat attended the convention Tuesday night during addresses from President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, according to photographs. (Provided to Breitbart News)
Breitbart News called Chavez-DeRemer’s Washington office on Wednesday at 3:58 p.m. Eastern (12:58 pm local time in Chavez-DeRemer’s district), but the phones were forwarded to voicemail. The phones went straight to voicemail Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern as well.
When finally reached Thursday morning, the office provided an email for a press contact. That contact did not immediately reply to an inquiry from Breitbart News asking for a statement from the congresswoman, if the staff member was using pre-approved office vacation days while in Chicago, or if Chavez-DeRemer is aware of any other of her staffers supporting Harris.
The congresswoman held out on endorsing Trump in the 2024 primary, offering a brief, tepid endorsement in March the same day Nikki Haley ended her quixotic campaign against Trump in the Republican presidential primary.
Haley had endorsed Chavez-DeRemer in 2022.
In the photos obtained by Breitbart News, Flores-Pourrat’s shirt appears to read “REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ARE ON THE BALLOT” and “IWILLVOTE.COM” – a voter registration organization aligned with the Democratic Party:
(Provided to Breitbart News)
That abortion stance conflicts with Chavez-DeRemer’s public stance on abortion.
However, the crowd of Democrats who hosted her top immigration policy staffer this week would welcome her immigration and border policies.
After arriving in Washington in 2023, Chavez-DeRemer joined a small cadre of centrist Republicans working with Democrats to advance Biden administration priorities.
Most notably, she engineered a pro-migration bill coined as a compromise by its supporters with the purpose of freeing up tens of billions in American taxpayer dollars to fund Ukraine’s war against Russia.
The so-called border-management plan drafted by Chavez-DeRemer, three other Republicans, and four Democrats sounds tough but enables mass migration into American communities and workplaces, Rosemary Jenks at the Immigration Accountability Project told Breitbart News.
“I would say it’s more of a symbolic effort” that offers a political excuse to the Republican legislators who want to fund Ukraine’s war with Russia, Jenks said. “It’s not going to have an impact [at the border] — there are just too many loopholes and waivers and discretion. No money either [for] all these [migrant] people who would have to be detained so I don’t know where they’re going to be detained,” Jenks said.
Chavez-DeRemer also joined with Democrats to push a draft migration and amnesty bill that supercharges the flow of foreign visa workers into the white-collar careers sought by many striving U.S. graduates, Breitbart News reported.
Chavez-DeRemer has acted in other ways harmful to the Republican cause.
In October 2023, she was one of 25 Republicans who blocked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) — perhaps the most popular conservative in the nation — from the speakership in a series of votes on the House floor.
The congresswoman and her his cohorts’ blockade — despite Jordan having won the House Republican Conference’s nomination in a conference-wide vote — led to a compromise candidate, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), attaining the Speaker’s gavel.
Ironically, in justifying her vote against the democratically chosen GOP Speaker candidate, Chavez-DeRemer cited her concerns with Republican division.
Republicans soon united, but with Democrats.
Speaker Johnson quickly partnered with the ostensible minority party — including in an unprecedented vote in which Democrats saved the Speaker’s gavel — to unleash President Joe Biden’s priorities, including an extension of funding levels and priorities engineered by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), passage of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act extension that allowed intelligence agencies to continue spying on Americans without obtaining a warrant, and tens of millions in foreign aid to Ukraine.
Once becoming Speaker, Johnson — who voted for Jordan during open balloting on the House floor but was nevertheless the biggest beneficiary of Jordan’s defeat by his fellow Republicans — refused to punish the 25 for violating the formal will of the House Republican conference.
The Speaker formally declined to comment through his spokesman when asked a series of in-depth questions from Breitbart News about what specific consequences would befall the 25 intransigent Republicans for the harm they caused the country in October.
Yet, Johnson supports retaliating against Republicans who opposed him in a May 2024 vote to vacate the chair, he reportedly told high-dollar donors at the swanky Four Seasons Hotel in Washington.
Johnson has crisscrossed the country fundraising for the 25 Republicans who blocked Jordan. His first fundraising trip after passing Ukraine aid was to help Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-TX), another of the 25 and perhaps the most moderate House Republican, in his primary race against a conservative challenger.
Earlier in August, Johnson traveled to the West Coast to headline a Portland fundraiser for Chavez-DeRemer.
Harris addresses the DNC on Thursday night. It is unknown if Flores-Pourrat will be in attendance.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.