Leslie Lewallen, R-Camas, a candidate for Washington’s Third Congressional District, hopped aboard her “whistle stop tour” to visit over 20 communities across the district on Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 20.
Lewallen said the two-day tour visited small businesses and festivals and held meet-and-greets, allowing her to hear concerns from every corner of the Third Congressional District as well as solidify one main message: “Thank God there’s an alternative to Joe Kent,” Lewallen said she heard voters say of her Republican opponent on several occasions.
Alternative to Joe Kent
“They’re just so glad that there’s a viable proven results winner that they can vote for,” she added. “So, you know, he’s been campaigning for the past four years for this position, and while he’s been professionally campaigning, I’ve actually been delivering results for the folks here in Southwest Washington.”
Lewallen, still a member of the Camas City Council, said she’s helped save a student resource officer position in the city of Camas, among other accomplishments.
“I’ve been fighting for parental rights. I sit on the city school subcommittee,” Lewallen said. “I’ve been fighting the homeless crisis here. I sit on the homeless subcommittee in Camas and I work with our regional partners. I also sit on the Regional Transportation Commission and I’ve been addressing transportation needs here in Southwest Washington.”
After Kent lost the 2022 election to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, he was right back to campaigning, which is working well for him, according to a recent poll in June by the Northwest Progressive Institute. A total of 46% of 649 surveyed, all likely November voters, said they’d vote for Kent compared to 45% saying they’d cast their vote for Gluesenkamp Perez, while 9% surveyed said they were unsure.
In the polling article by Andrew Villeneuve, he mentioned Lewallen also running as a Republican ahead of the Aug. 6 primary, but said Kent’s support from the Washington state Republican Party and Donald Trump is “leaving Lewallen without much of an opening.”
Lewallen believes otherwise in the race for the Third Congressional District seat.
“Really the only thing that Joe Kent has delivered to the folks of Southwest Washington is he delivered a safe Republican seat to a progressive Democrat who does not belong in office,” Lewallen said.
She added the support for herself against Kent was strong among Republicans at Battle Ground’s Harvest Days festival on Saturday, July 20.
“A lot of folks at that event told me that they already voted for me and that they did not like Joe Kent. That in the last election cycle, they either left the ballot blank or they voted for Marie Gluesenkamp Perez because they thought he was too extreme,” Lewallen said. “... From the minute I filed to run last April of 2023, the overwhelming response that I got then and I continue to get now is, ‘Thank God there’s an alternative to Joe Kent,’ during the whistle stop tour. We had person after person after person saying what they didn’t like about him, how they weren’t going to vote for him and how he had no shot, that he had his chance and he lost.”
Community concerns
Lewallen’s two-day whistle stop tour allowed her to hear localized concerns along with national topics occurring within the Third Congressional District in Washington.
Lewallen’s tour kicked off in Skamania County where she heard localized concerns compared to general national topics. Community members shared concerns about wildfires and how they impact them. One resident said his wife was an employee of the public utility and he shared his concerns with the breaching of the Lower Snake River Dam and how that could affect the flow of the Columbia River.
Moving over to Clark County, the concerns were similar on the whistle stop tour compared to her door knocking and calls throughout this campaign season.
“They don’t want to see Southwest Washington become like Portland,” Lewallen said. “They don’t want the drugs, the crime, the homelessness and businesses shutting down. And inflation is another key topic for them, people are really struggling to make ends meet. They’re having a hard time paying their grocery bills and putting gas in the car at the same time.”
When her tour made its way into Pacific, Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties, logging and forestry issues along with fishing issues were prevalent.
In South Bend, the county seat of Pacific County, she met with a former superintendent of the schools there regarding his concerns about parental rights.
“He was really concerned about parental rights and parents being put back in the driver’s seat with respect to their children’s education,” Lewallen said. “He said that he had to retire because he didn’t like the trend that was happening in the public school system.”
She said while visiting Lewis County similar issues were the hot topics of discussion, but the statements against Kent were strong.
“We’ve been out in (Lewis) County a lot and, again, folks are not happy with Joe. They’re not happy with Marie,” Lewallen said. “The district was won by Trump by four points in 2020 and Tiffany Smiley won the district by eight points in 2022. So this is a safe Republican district. It’s one of four districts that Trump did win in the last election cycle that’s currently being held by a Democrat.”
Localizing the Southern border
Lewallen said another thing that was talked about by many on her tour was Gluesenkamp Perez’s statement regarding the Southern border.
“They could not believe Marie Gleusenkamp Perez was so flippant on video saying nobody stays awake at night worrying about the Southern border,” Lewallen said. “I think that is really something she’s not going to be able to escape.”
With Interstate 5 heading right through the Third Congressional District, the Southern border and its issues affect the region, Lewallen said.
“Look, if we secure our Southern border, that cuts the head of the snake off, you know, that cuts off the drugs, the crime, the human trafficking that’s coming straight up that I-5 corridor and taking root in our communities,” Lewallen said. “I hear every single solitary day from folks about the impacts of fentanyl, and it’s not a red issue, it’s not a blue issue. It’s a red, white and blue issue. We held a fentanyl town hall and there’s folks from all walks of life who have lost loved ones from fentanyl, and I’ve seen parents come up to me and cry and say, ‘we’ve got to fix this.’ We absolutely have to fix this.”
The primary election is Aug. 6. The top two candidates in each race will move on to the general election in November.
