Gluesenkamp Perez leads Kent in high-stakes WA congressional race

Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez held a lead over Republican Joe Kent on Tuesday in a nationally-watched contest that could help determine which party holds the House majority next year.

Gluesenkamp Perez, who is seeking a second term representing the 3rd Congressional District in southwest Washington, led Kent 51.8% to 47.8% in votes tallied Tuesday. Results will be updated as more votes are counted.

This is a rematch of the 2022 electoral battle in which Gluesenkamp Perez beat Kent by 2,629 votes in one of that year’s biggest ballot upsets. Moreover, that defeat cost the Republican Party the 3rd Congressional District seat it had held for more than a decade.

Gluesenkamp Perez has positioned herself as a moderate Democrat, touting her willingness to work across the aisle and to oppose President Joe Biden’s border security policies and his proposals for student loan forgiveness.

A co-chair of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition in Congress, Gluesenkamp Perez has been ranked by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy as one of the most bipartisan members of the House based on how often she works across party lines.

Kent, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, was endorsed by former president Donald Trump who won the district in 2020. Trump is expected to prevail in the 3rd District again in this election.

In his first campaign, Kent leaned in on election fraud conspiracies, spoke loudly for a national ban on abortion and fully embraced Trump. Though the district leans Republican, some of Kent’s more fringe positions are believed to have cost him votes from moderate party members and independents in 2022.

This time, Kent zeroed in on bread-and-butter Republican Party issues, such as immigration and inflation. And he encouraged Republicans to vote early and track their ballots.

Gluesenkamp Perez tried to paint Kent as an outsider in the district who’d flirted with anti-government ideas and characters. Kent tried to convince voters Gluesenkamp Perez was too liberal on issues like immigration and law enforcement and had only taken moderate votes for show on legislation that was doomed to fail in the Senate.

The two candidates faced off in debates and television appearances that spotlighted the contrast in their personalities, style and policy approaches.

Some of the issues they clashed over are far from the district. For example, Gluesenkamp Perez supports continued U.S. aid to Ukraine for its war with Russia. Kent does not.

During her time in Congress, Gluesenkamp Perez has advocated for federal funding to replace the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River, which connects Oregon with her district. 

The pending, multi-billion dollar project popped up throughout the campaign, with Kent opposing tolling plans, light rail, and other aspects of it and Gluesenkamp Perez dismissing his ideas about how to rework the project as unrealistic.

In fundraising, Gluesenkamp Perez outpaced Kent by a wide margin. She reported $9.9 million in contributions for the entire election cycle as of Sept. 30, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. She had $640,000 in cash on hand on Oct. 16.

Kent reported nearly $2.3 million and had roughly $234,000 on hand per his Federal Election Commission filings.

But that only tells part of the story. Democratic and Republican organizations, and an array of political committees, spent roughly $18 million independent of the candidates in the race, according to Open Secrets. 

As of Oct. 31, Kent had been the target of $8.3 million in opposition spending, with the  House Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the House Majority PAC accounting for roughly $6 million of the total.

There was $6.2 million spent against Gluesenkamp Perez, nearly all of it by the National Republican Congressional Committee, based on data compiled by Open Secrets. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the district twice to help Kent raise money, most recently on Oct. 24 for a get-out-the-vote rally. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also came to the district. In the final week before the election, Trump joined a call with Kent to help him make a closing argument to voters.

The winner will serve a two-year term as representative of the district, which encompasses Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, and Skamania counties and a touch of Thurston County. The 3rd district’s southern boundary is the Columbia River. It includes Vancouver and rural areas with ties to timber and agriculture, and coastal towns like Long Beach.