Vulnerable Democrat, Trump-Backed Challenger Advance in Battleground Washington Primary

Rep.-Elect Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez (D-WA) speaks at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) event welcoming new Latino members to Congress at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Washington, on Nov. 18, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and her Republican challenger Joe Kent advanced to the general election after Washington’s congressional primary election on Aug. 6.

Gluesenkamp Perez, a first-term member, is regarded as one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the 2024 election cycle—representing a Republican-leaning district in southwest Washington.

She flipped the district in 2022 after the incumbent Rep. Jamie Herrara Beutler (R-Wash.) was denounced by former President Donald Trump and subsequently finished third in that year’s primary election. Beutler had voted to impeach Trump for the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

Gluesenkamp Perez placed first in the primary with 46.9 percent of the vote as of midnight EDT, followed by Kent in second place with 38.4 percent. Kent, a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer and Gold Star widower, previously ran against Gluesenkamp Perez in 2022.

The State of Washington uses a nonpartisan blanket primary system, whereby all candidates compete on the same ballot, regardless of party, and the top two candidates advance to the general election.

“This race could not be more different today than it was two years ago when we emerged from the primary not just broke but in debt,” wrote Kent in a statement to The Epoch Times. He went on to criticize Gluesenkamp Perez’s positions on Second Amendment rights, women’s sports, and local issues such as infrastructure and forests.

Gluesenkamp Perez criticized Kent in a post on X for his views on abortion, immigration, the 2020 election, and the coronavirus pandemic. Her campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another Republican candidate, Camas City Councillor Leslie Lewallen, received 12.4 percent of the vote, while independent candidate John Saulie-Rohman received 2.3 percent.

Kent was endorsed by Trump on July 28.

In the 118th Congress, Gluesenkamp Perez is a co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, a 10-member caucus of moderate Democrats in the House of Representatives. She has sometimes broken from the House Democratic Caucus on key votes. She was one of only two Democrats to vote for repealing President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan in 2023, saying it wasn’t “matched dollar-for-dollar with investments in career & technical education.”

Gluesenkamp Perez also voted in favor of a recent resolution to condemn Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, for her “failure to secure the United States border” as the Biden administration’s so-called “border czar.”

The 2022 race between Gluesenkamp Perez and Kent was narrowly decided. Her margin of victory was 0.83 percent or 2,629 votes.