SEATTLE — Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was a relatively unknown auto repair shop owner two years ago when she scored one of the nation's biggest upset wins for Democrats.
She beat Joe Kent, a Donald Trump-endorsed Green Beret veteran, by just 2,629 votes in the Republican-leaning 3rd Congressional District of Southwest Washington, handing the GOP an unexpected and stinging defeat.
As Gluesenkamp Perez seeks reelection to the House this fall, she's no longer an obscure figure. She's garnered national media attention as a blue-collar Democrat who has broken with her party to appeal to working-class and rural voters she says have been overlooked.
But one factor remains unchanged. As in 2022, Gluesenkamp Perez is again facing Kent on the ballot — first in the Aug. 6 primary and likely in a November rematch.
Washington's 3rd Congressional District
The district covers the southernmost portion of Western Washington. It includes Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark and Skamania counties, and a small portion of southern Thurston County.
"It feels like the same grudge fight. ... He's changed the color of his yard signs, but that's about it," Gluesenkamp Perez said in an interview. "The big difference is I have a voting record that shows I was not lying about who I am."
In Congress, Gluesenkamp Perez has diverged from fellow Democrats on some high-profile issues, including voting with Republicans last year to repeal President Joe Biden's plan to cancel student debt for 43 million Americans. She said any such aid for college graduates should be paired "dollar-for-dollar" with investments in career and technical education for trades workers.
Last week, she was one of six House Democrats to join Republicans in a vote condemning Vice President Kamala Harris for the Biden administration's handling of the southern border. She also publicly called for Biden to end his reelection campaign after his disastrous debate performance, and has declined to endorse Harris.
One independent analysis found Gluesenkamp Perez has established among the most bipartisan voting records in the U.S. House. The analysis, by The Lugar Center at Georgetown University, ranked her as the fifth-most bipartisan Democrat in the U.S. House, based on her sponsorship of bills with members of the opposite party.
Kent is also looking ahead to a fall rematch against Gluesenkamp Perez, characterizing her splits with Democrats as "performative" antics designed to fool voters.
"An advantage Marie Perez had last time is she could kind of say whatever she wanted to say," Kent said in an interview. "Now, she has an 18-month record in terms of people knowing she has voted for Biden's open borders and prioritizing foreign wars and foreign aid."
He opposes U.S. aid to Ukraine, and has repeatedly warned the U.S. that assistance is inflaming the conflict with Russia by allowing attacks inside its borders, with potentially devastating consequences.
"We are closer to World War III and a nuclear exchange than any time since the Cuban missile crisis," he said.
In 2022, Kent defeated then U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler in the primary. She had been one of 10 House Republicans to join Democrats in voting to impeach Trump over his role in stoking the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Kent, who repeatedly echoed Trump's false claims that the election was "stolen," won Trump's endorsement and effectively ended Herrera Beutler's congressional career after more than a decade in office. That primary, which featured multiple GOP challengers, left the party divided, he says.
"It was a brutal Republican knife fight. It was just divisive in terms of people passionately supporting their candidate. We didn't have time to unify the party by the time I was the nominee," he said. "We don't have that this time."
Kent has been endorsed by the state Republican Party and by every county Republican group in the 3rd District. This week, he was again endorsed by Trump, who in a social media post called him "America First all the way" and "AN ABSOLUTE WINNER."
Another Republican contender in the Aug. 6 primary, Camas City Councilmember Leslie Lewallen, disagrees with Trump's confident assessment of Kent.
She argues Kent blew an easily winnable seat for Republicans two years ago, and will lose again this fall if he faces Gluesenkamp Perez. "There is a majority of Republicans in Southwest Washington that are hungry for an alternative other than Joe Kent," Lewallen said in an interview.
Lewallen has failed to grab endorsements from most GOP groups and lags in fundraising, but said she's confident she can flip the congressional seat back if given the chance. "Southwest Washington deserves better," she said.
But Kent and Gluesenkamp Perez are clearly expecting to face each other again in a closely contested fight after the primary votes are tallied next week.
In online exchanges and interviews, Gluesenkamp Perez has highlighted Kent's numerous appearances on podcasts highlighting conspiracy theories and fringe views. She has even described some of his views as "weird" — a line of attack that started before national Democrats recently began using the word to describe Trump and his vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
"I feel like he spends way too much time online and not out talking to normal people about what impacts their lives," Gluesenkamp Perez said.
At a recent virtual town hall, Kent suggested that Secret Service agents might have been "in on" the attempted assassination of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, according to Axios.
In an interview, Kent didn't exactly shy away from that assertion, saying as a former military and intelligence officer, he found the "official story" that the 22-year-old gunman infiltrated security at Trump's rally by himself "hard to believe."
Kent said he was glad that a bipartisan investigation into the assassination has been announced by U.S. House leaders.
A poll in June found Gluesenkamp Perez and Kent in a statistical tie in a presumed November matchup.
Gluesenkamp Perez, with the advantages of incumbency, has led in fundraising, pulling in more than $6.7 million through July 17, according to Federal Election Commission filings. A closely affiliated fundraising committee supporting her has raised an additional $268,000.
Kent has raised about $1.4 million over the same period directly through his campaign, while a closely affiliated fundraising committee has added $2.4 million more.
Lewallen has raised about $820,000.
This year, the big money of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — which stayed on the sidelines in 2022 — is expected to come out in full force to defend Gluesenkamp Perez, who is viewed as one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the country.
Big-money Republican groups are also poised to spend in the race, and have already reserved TV ad time in the Portland media market. An independent expenditure group backed by billionaire TikTok investor Jeff Yass has already reported spending $720,000 in support of Kent.
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