More than 300 people filled the auditorium at Lower Columbia College Thursday night for Oregon Public Broadcasting’s debate between Republican Joe Kent and Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez for the state’s 3rd Congressional district.
Dean Morton came in from Silver Lake for the debate looking to get some policy ideas directly from the candidates. While he’s seen the online and TV ads the campaigns have pumped out, his biggest questions hadn’t been answered.
“All I see are their ads attacking each other. There’s nothing to do with the issues we need to deal with,” Morton said, naming the economy and environmental damage as two of those issues.
Undecided voters like Morton may have gotten some of those answers from Thursday night’s debate. “Think Out Loud” host and moderator Dave Miller pressed the candidates for specific policy positions when it came to the national and local economy, abortion and their broader ideas about federal funding.
Miller was not able to fully prevent Kent and Gluesenkamp Perez from talking over and attacking each other, drawing vocal reactions from the audience. Kent’s supporters appeared more organized with candidate hats and signs, but The Daily News’ interviews before the debate and the crowd reactions showed a more even balance.
The most vocal fight of the night was over immigration. Kent vehemently pushed back on Gluesenkamp Perez’s claims that his immigration policies were about race, while advocating for strict limitations such as closing citizenship pathways and stopping legal “economic immigration” that relied on work visas.
“If your visa brings you over here to work, you are stealing a job from an American citizen,” Kent said.
According to the Department of Labor, there were 317,000 workers in 2021 who entered the U.S. using H-2A visas for temporary agriculture jobs, the most common work visa program. Washington employed the fourth most H-2A visa workers.
Gluesenkamp Perez pushed back that the current job market and low unemployment rate were signs that Americans were able to find work. Perez said she was in favor of securing the U.S.-Mexico border but also wanted to improve the systems to provide asylum and other legal immigration pathways.
“I think right now it’s people who have money for lawyers who can navigate an overly complex system,” Gluesenkamp Perez said.
The candidates had very different approaches to tackling inflation through Congress. Kent reiterated his plan to shut down the federal government if the Biden administration didn’t ramp up the domestic energy supply. Gluesenkamp Perez said that improving domestic manufacturing and trade work programs would boost the economy.
During a section about law enforcement, Gluesenkamp Perez asked Kent directly if he would vote to limit federal funding for police officers in Washington. Kent said he would vote against state funding in favor of local sheriffs, who he argued were more accountable to voters.
“I would not allow federal taxpayer dollars to go to the people that run Seattle,” Kent said.
“You’re talking about defunding the police,” Gluesenkamp Perez interrupted during his explanation.
Another undecided voter who attended the debate was Longview resident Kim Harris. Harris said she leans conservative and has major concerns about the economy but has voted for Democrats and independents in the past.
Harris said the one thing she’d like to ask Kent and Gluesenkamp Perez about was the growing hostility and polarization of the political climate.
“That’s what I’d like to ask them,” Harris said. “How do they feel about this sense that it’s always us versus them? How can we come together to help everybody?”
The audio from the debate was broadcast by OPB on Friday and can be listened to on their website or through the “Think Out Loud” podcast.
