Gluesenkamp Perez holds back GOP in competitive Washington House race

Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D) has won a second term in Washington state’s 3rd Congressional District, Decision Desk HQ projects.

Gluesenkamp Perez again defeated Republican Joe Kent, a retired Green Beret backed by former President Trump, in a closely watched rematch, keeping the southwestern Washington seat in Democratic control two years after her upset victory.

During the midterms, Kent beat out then-Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), one of the handful of House GOP lawmakers who voted to impeach Trump, in the primaries, but lost to Gluesenkamp Perez in the general. 

This cycle, Gluesenkamp Perez was one of just a few House Democrats fighting for reelecton in a district Trump won in 2020. Along the campaign trail, Kent emphasized his alignment with the former president, while working to tie his Democratic rival to the Biden-Harris administration and liberal policies in the area, which neighbors Portland, Ore. 

But the Democrat emphasized her bipartisan voting record in Congress and hammered Kent as “the same strange, angry, dangerous bonafide white nationalist I defeated last time.” She’s ranked among the top 20 House lawmakers on the Lugar Center and the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s 2023 Bipartisan Index, a tool measuring how much members of Congress reach across party lines on legislation.