Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez defeats Republican Joe Kent to secure second term in Congress

First-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has defeated Republican Joe Kent in the race to represent southwest Washington in Congress.

As of 6 p.m. Thursday, Washington election officials reported that Gluesenkamp Perez led by 51.3% to 48.3%, a difference of 11,000 votes. That margin has eroded just slightly since election night.

It compares to her winning edge of fewer than 5,000 votes in 2022.

The fact that Gluzenkamp Perez has a glide path to victory, while Kent lacks a plausible path to winning, is primarily because the largest share by far of untallied ballots are in Clark County, where roughly two thirds of 3rd District voters live. The county still has an estimated 40,000 votes to count, according to state election officials, and so far 56% of Clark County's votes have gone her way. There are negligible numbers of outstanding ballots in other of the district's counties, according to reports from county election offices.

In 2022, Gluesenkamp Perez, who had never held elected office, shocked the political world by beating Kent in a district that had voted for former President Donald Trump by nearly four percentage points two years earlier. Experts expected this year's race in Washington's 3rd Congressional District to again be one of the closest in the country.

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The race received national attention and drew huge spending, with national groups contributing millions in hopes of helping their party claim a majority in the U.S. House.

The balance of power in the U.S. House has yet to be determined. Democrats needed to net four seats to take control of that chamber. As of Thursday night, Republicans needed to win seven more seats for control and Democrats needed 18. Competitive races throughout the country had yet to be called.

Kent largely aligned himself with positions embraced by Trump, including supporting the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, and received strong support from the district's most conservative voters. Gluesenkamp Perez, meanwhile, campaigned on her rural roots and commitment to strengthening the working class and advocating for farmers and small businesses.

Gluesenkamp Perez lives in rural Skamania County in the southeastern part of the district and prides herself on being a staunch advocate in Congress for rural, working class people. Prior to entering office, Gluesenkamp Perez helped her husband run an auto shop in Portland, which the two opened after she graduated from Reed College in 2012, and still own.

Despite attending one of the country's most liberal colleges, Gluesenkamp Perez has solidified herself as a moderate in Congress, co-chairing the Blue Dog Coalition. And she has made national headlines for her willingness to vote against her party when she thinks it will benefit her district.

In a 2023 ranking compiled by The Lugar Center and Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, Gluesenkamp Perez ranked fourth among Democrats and 12th overall for most bipartisan members of the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives.

"I wasn't kidding about who I was last time, and I have the voting record to back that up," Gluesenkamp Perez told The Oregonian/OregonLive Tuesday. "My loyalty is to southwest Washington, not to a political agenda. I take very seriously my duty to show up and be accountable."

She has also brought several powerful federal officials, including Biden senior adviser Mitch Landrieu and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, to the district.

Gluesenkamp Perez's focus on her constituents, experts said, is likely the reason she racked up endorsements from labor unions and trade groups. Her long list of supporters included the state's largest unions representing police and sheriffs, firefighters, farmers and teachers.

Kent served in the U.S. Army for two decades before becoming a field operative for the CIA. He then worked as a foreign policy adviser for the Trump administration. Kent's first wife, a Navy cryptologic technician, was killed in a 2019 bombing in Syria.

If elected, he promised to cut unnecessary government spending, secure the southern U.S. border and impose large tariffs on foreign imports, all Trump priorities. Along with an endorsement from Trump, he was endorsed by several conservative members of Congress and the county and state Republican party chapters.

Gluesenkamp Perez had raised nearly $10.7 million and Kent had raised $2.3 million as of mid-October, according to federal filings. Outside groups dropped nearly $10.3 million to oppose Kent and almost $6.2 million to oppose Gluesenkamp Perez, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics.