4 takeaways from the Gluesenkamp-Perez debate

Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and John Braun, the top Republican in the Washington state Senate who is challenging her in a critical congressional duel, faced off on Wednesday in a televised debate, exchanging digs on the Iran war, policies of President Donald Trump, gas prices, and at each other.

This match-up in the 3rd Congressional District seat in southwest Washington is among a handful of competitive races nationwide that could decide which party is in charge in January.

Gluesenkamp Perez, 38, of Skamania County, is in her second term. She entered Congress after beating Republican Joe Kent in 2022, flipping the seat for Democrats in one of the year’s biggest electoral surprises. She beat Kent in a rematch in 2024.

Braun, 59, of Chehalis, is in his fourth term as a state senator. He has served as the Senate minority leader since 2020.

As of mid-August, Gluesenkamp Perez had reported raising three times as much as Braun, $6.3 million to $2.2 million. But that is only part of the story as political committees for the Democratic and Republican caucus in the House, and independent committees are spending big too.

Here are four takeaways from their hourlong debate conducted in a studio at KOIN6 in Portland.

They oppose the Iran war differently

Braun sought to thread the needle on wanting the conflict to end without directly blaming the president for keeping the U.S. engaged.

“I would not support an open-ended war with no clear objectives to end it,” he said. “We don’t have that right now.”

Gluesenkamp Perez pounced. “This war has been a disaster for our families at home, for our military families, for our geopolitical security,” she said. “We’ve got to get out of this war and I’ve voted six times to do that already.”

The two did agree the war is driving up fuel and energy prices and both said they would support freezing state and federal gas taxes to bring short-term relief to high fuel prices.

Trump got a lot of mentions

Gluesenkamp Perez made certain early and often that viewers knew Braun had the full-fledged backing of President Donald Trump and would back his policies.

“He’s got President Trump’s endorsement and the millions of dollars that comes with that in political spending,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “I’ve proven I’m loyal to our community, not party bosses.”

Braun’s retort was to tag the incumbent as a “D.C. politician” who had passed only one bill in four years, to name a post office. “A good name, good post office, but not something that’s making a difference in your lives,” he said. 

Braun is clear on income tax, MGP is not

An initiative to repeal the state’s new high-earners income tax is one of the election’s hottest topics. Gluesenkamp Perez detoured around an answer when asked “Do you support the tax?”

“Okay, so there are basically two problems with politicians in Olympia. They spend money like a Connecticut horse girl, and working people are paying too much in taxes,” she said. “Adding another revenue stream isn’t fundamentally going to fix the problem.”

She said if it drifted down to middle and lower incomes, she wouldn’t support it. “I don’t work in state government,” she said, implying it’s not her issue.

Braun, who voted against the tax in the state Senate this year, seized on her non answer. “It’s wrong-headed. It’s clearly unconstitutional,” he said. “I didn’t hear the congresswoman take a position on that one way or another, but she should.”

Given a chance to respond, a somewhat flummoxed Gluesenkamp Perez said “I don’t work in Olympia. I don’t work for a caucus. I work to represent working people and families in southwest Washington.”

It happened again with light rail and the I-5 bridge

Gluesenkamp Perez stepped around another local controversy, the proposal to build a new I-5 bridge over the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon. The estimated cost of the entire project has nearly doubled to $15 billion and the candidates were quizzed on whether to proceed.

Braun said a bridge is needed and should be built with the $6 billion in state and federal funds scraped together so far. Everything else, including light rail, should be set aside until there is money. “We need a bridge, but we need a bridge we can afford and one we can build on time and on budget,” he said.

Gluesenkamp Perez cited the $2.1 billion in federal funds she’s helped secure for the project. “That’s a big number, but this is fundamentally a state project, and you know we haven’t seen that commitment from people in Olympia to make sure that we’re getting the resources we need,” she said. 

When asked if she would be willing to take light rail out of the mix if it would help secure more federal funds, Gluesenkamp Perez said it is, “Zero percent the federal government’s role.” 

They’ll meet again next week

Gluesenkamp Perez and Braun will face off on Oct. 13 on KATU.