Freshman U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, continues to outpace Republican challenger Joe Kent in fundraising efforts ahead of the general election.
In filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign reported having raised $6.7 million in donations, with more than $3.8 million on hand in their latest filing, while Kent reported roughly $1.4 million in donations with $580,000 in cash on hand.
“Marie refuses to accept corporate (political action committee) money, instead powering her campaign with grassroots donors who believe in her work for Southwest Washington,” Emmett Avery, a spokesman for the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign, said in a statement. “Based on Joe Kent’s difficulty fundraising, it seems clear there’s a limited number of people willing to donate to a guy who's been running for three years straight on an angry, dangerous and divisive white nationalist platform.”
In a July 15 news release announcing its fundraising totals, the Kent campaign noted it has raised a total of $2.5 million between the Joe Kent Victory Fund and the Joe Kent for Congress.
According to the campaign, the Joe Kent Victory Fund is a joint fundraising committee that includes Joe Kent for Congress, KENT PAC and the Washington State Republican Party.
In the last quarter before the August primary, the Kent campaign raised $633,000 in donations between the Joe Kent Victory Fund and the Joe Kent campaign.
The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan website that analyzes American elections and political trends, continues to rate the Third District as one of 22 “toss-up” districts across the country. As of Friday, the organization considers 203 districts to lean either Democratic or solidly Democratic, with 210 seats considered Republican-leaning or solidly Republican.
During a fundraiser in Vancouver, U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, called the race “one of the top five” in the country.
“Everyone’s attention is on it,” Johnson said ahead of the Aug. 17 fundraiser.
Americans continue to slightly favor Democrats in a generic congressional election, according to political polling aggregator 538. On Friday, its rolling average showed that 46.8% of Americans would support a generic Democratic candidate compared to 45.3% who would support a Republican.
