We use chiral effective field theory (χEFT) to make predictions for the longitudinal electromagnetic response function of the deuteron, f L , which is measured in d(e, e ′ N ) reactions. In this case the impulse approximation gives the full χEFT result up to corrections that are of O(P 4 ) relative to leading order. By varying the cutoff in the χEFT calculation between 0.6 and 1 GeV we conclude that the calculation is accurate to better than 10% for values of q 2 within 4 fm −2 of the quasi-free peak, up to final-state energies E np = 60 MeV. In these regions χEFT is in reasonable agreement with predictions for f L obtained using the Bonn potential. We also find good agreement with existing experimental data on f L , albeit in a more restricted kinematic domain.