A member of Congress is elected to represent the people, values and interests of a district.
By that standard, the choice in the race to represent Washington’s Third Congressional District is clear.
John Braun’s life, experience and record fit Southwest Washington unusually well. His roots in this region — and particularly here in Lewis County — run deep.
Braun’s resume is substantial. He served 31 years in the United States Navy, including active duty and more than two decades in the Reserves, rising to captain in the submarine force and holding six commands. He served as director of the Submarine Force Reserve Component. That is a career built on discipline, judgment and accountability.
He knows how to run a tight ship. He also understands the private economy from the ground up. As president of Braun Northwest in Chehalis, he leads a company that employs over 300 people and builds ambulances and emergency vehicles for fire, EMS and law enforcement agencies across the West.
Each week, he makes payroll, manages people, deals with regulation and helps sustain family-wage manufacturing jobs in Southwest Washington.
Since 2013, Braun has served as a citizen legislator in the state Senate, where he has represented communities that include parts of Clark, Cowlitz and Lewis counties. His colleagues elected him Senate Republican Leader in 2020. Before that, he played a central role in budget negotiations, including as chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
He has commanded sailors, run a business and written budgets.
That combination is rare.
But Braun’s strongest argument is not just professional experience. It is fit. He and his wife, Marlo, have been married more than 38 years and raised four children on a small farm outside Centralia. Three of their children followed him into service as officers in the Navy or Marine Corps. The fourth is a nurse, like Marlo.
That family story reflects duty, work, faithfulness and responsibility — values that still matter in Lewis County and Southwest Washington.
For Chronicle readers, there is an important distinction: Braun is not a candidate who recently discovered Southwest Washington. He has spent decades living, working, raising a family and creating jobs here.
This district is practical, independent and rooted in common sense. It is home to commuters, farmers, trades workers, veterans, small-business owners, parents, first responders and families trying to preserve the character of their communities while growth changes the region around them. Braun understands those tensions. He knows that communities like ours need good roads, safe neighborhoods, strong schools, family-wage jobs and respect for rural land and private property.
He also understands the pressure families feel from rising costs. Housing, fuel, groceries, energy, insurance and property taxes are already stretching household budgets. That is why Olympia’s recent adoption of an income tax should alarm voters here. Olympia Democrats passed Senate Bill 6346, a 9.9 percent tax on certain individual income beginning in 2028. Supporters call it a “millionaires’ tax,” but Washington voters have rejected income taxes repeatedly, and the concern is obvious: once the structure exists, future Legislatures can expand it.
That concern is especially relevant because the Legislature overwhelmingly approved Initiative 2111 just two years ago, prohibiting state and local governments from imposing a personal income tax. Senate Bill 6346 amended that prohibition to make an exception for the new tax. Whatever the courts ultimately decide about the new law, such a rapid reversal should trouble voters who expect government to respect commitments made to them.
Braun has said no, emphatically and often, leading opposition to the measure in the Legislature. Southwest Washington needs leaders who will push back against that direction, not accommodate it.
Braun also has a record of results. In 2015, he was prime sponsor of the College Affordability Program, which reduced tuition at Washington’s public colleges and universities. At a time when families were worried about the cost of higher education, Braun helped deliver a concrete benefit to students and parents. It was the kind of practical accomplishment voters say they want more often from government.
He also helped lead budget work during the difficult McCleary school-funding negotiations. That work was technical, complicated and often thankless. It required understanding constitutional obligations, school needs, taxpayer limits and the differences between communities across the state. Braun showed he could work through a hard problem without turning it into a performance.
That matters in Congress. Southwest Washington does not need a representative who is primarily focused on social media or building a national personal brand. It needs someone who knows how to read a budget, understand local consequences, ask hard questions and stay focused long enough to get results. Braun brings that seriousness.
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has tried to build her own political identity around working-class issues and independence from the national Democratic Party. Voters should examine that record carefully, just as they should examine Braun’s. But this election presents a substantially different choice from the congressional races Southwest Washington saw in 2022 and 2024.
Braun doesn’t have to create an image that fits. His life, family, work and public service are already rooted in this region.
Braun is not a protest vote or a gamble. He is a tested leader with deep knowledge of the district and a record voters can evaluate. He is steady rather than theatrical, prepared rather than impulsive and grounded in the responsibilities of family, service, business and community.
He has represented much of Southwest Washington for nearly 14 years, led one of the two caucuses in the state Senate, negotiated major budgets and legislation, run a substantial local manufacturing company and served his country for more than three decades.
No candidate will agree with every voter on every issue. That is not the test. The test is experience, judgment, character, local knowledge and the ability to represent this district honestly and effectively.
He is a Navy veteran, manufacturer, budget writer, husband, father and proven public servant. He understands Southwest Washington because he has lived its values and worked through its challenges.
More importantly for readers of this newspaper, Lewis County isn't simply part of the district John Braun wants to represent.
It is home.
The Chronicle Editorial Board endorses John Braun for Congress.
