A phone appearance by Donald Trump and heavy spending from a conservative Super PAC have ratcheted up the heat heading into Tuesday’s primary for the District 3 House race.
Trump appeared on a 10-minute town hall phone call with Republican candidate Joe Kent on Monday afternoon. Trump endorsed Kent for the House seat in late 2021 and reiterated during the call that he was the only candidate in the race with the former president’s endorsement.
During the call, Trump and Kent both attacked incumbent Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler as a Republican in name only. Herrera Beutler was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“This is one of the most important votes we have going Tuesday in the whole country,” Trump said during the call.
Trump spoke about meeting Kent for the first time in 2019, after his wife Shannon Kent was killed during a U.S. military operation in Syria. He talked for a while at Dover Air Force Base and Trump said he told Kent he should consider running for office eventually.
Candidates endorsed by Trump have a strong track record overall, but the backing is not a guaranteed win for a race as contested as District 3. According to Axios, Trump-endorsed candidates have gone 14-5 in competitive primaries for House seats this year and 7-0 in competitive Senate primaries.
The other big recent splash in the race is the late arrival of a super PAC called Conservatives for a Stronger America. The group has spent $1.44 million on the race between July 13 and July 26, largely on ads supporting conservative candidate Heidi St. John over Kent.
The super PAC gave an initial $724,000 to St. John’s campaign on July 13 for television and radio ads. Since then, the group has paid for multiple rounds of mailers about St. John and Kent along with airing other ad spots.
Matt Braynard, an adviser for Kent’s campaign, called the investment “dark money attack ads” during the town hall call Monday.
Conservatives for a Stronger America is registered through a Massachusetts company called Bulldog Compliance, which is linked to other largely anonymous PACs that are operating in this year’s primaries. The PAC filed with the Federal Elections Commission to report its fundraising receipts on a monthly basis, so the identify of the donors behind the fund will not be available until late August.
St. John had backed off from an agreement to drop out of the race if another candidate received Trump’s endorsement. She has criticized Kent for being a relative newcomer to southwest Washington and voting in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
In addition to the two prominent Republican opponents challenging her from the right, Herrera Beutler is also running against the leading Democrat in the field, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Five other candidates will also be listed on the ballot.
A similar dynamic is playing out in another Washington congressional race. Trump has endorsed former gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp in the primary race against Rep. Dan Newhouse in Washington’s 4th district, who had also voted for his impeachment. The Seattle Times reported race has also seen an influx of spending from super PACs in recent weeks aimed at supporting the more moderate Newhouse.
