Incumbent Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) has won her race to keep her seat in Washington state’s Third Congressional District.
Perez, a two-term incumbent, led Republican state Senate Minority Leader John Braun in early counting on election night. The Associated Press declared her the winner the next day at 1:04 p.m. ET. She had 143,417 votes to Braun’s115,271 in the ongoing count.
At her election night party, Perez declared victory based on early counting. She led chants of “USA!” and told those in her district, “When I am taking votes, I think about all of you. And it is such a gift to work for such decent people.”
At his own party, Braun did not immediately concede, saying that many votes were left to be counted.
The southwest Washington district, on the Oregon border, was viewed as Republican-leaning.
The candidates faced off in two televised October debates. National issues loomed large and the race was pitched as a contest that could “tip the balance of power in D.C.”
Braun and Perez attempted to paint positive visions of themselves while making the case that their opponent would be out of touch with the needs of those in the district.
“The fact is, congresswoman Perez has turned into a D.C. politician,” Braun said.
She put some effort into refuting that claim.
Perez said that when she was first elected, she was running an auto shop with her husband and that she currently flies back from the capital to Washington every week, not only to raise her family but also to be among the people.
One thing she saw that her constituents were struggling with was the elevated cost of gasoline and diesel.
“Fuel prices are spiraling out of control, and I voted against the president’s war in Iran six times. My opponent refuses to stand against that,” Perez said.
Both candidates tied their opponent to party leaders while also insisting on some measure of their own independence.
“He’s got President Trump’s endorsement and the millions of dollars that comes with that in political spending. I have proven that I am loyal to our community, not party bosses,” Perez said.
She pointed to some well-known disagreements with Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives, including voting for the SAVE Act, a priority of the Trump administration that would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.
Perez had also been willing to side with Republicans not only on legislation that comes to the floor, but on some rules votes that normally proceed along party lines.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) publicly hinted at consequences if she kept doing that, but nevertheless she persisted, and he backed down.
Regarding hostilities in Iran, Braun said it was a “hard problem” and that he wanted to work with the U.S. government to bring about a “good solution.”
He also said that he could not ultimately support an “open-ended war with no clear objectives to end it.”
Braun is a retired U.S. Navy captain and part owner of an emergency vehicle manufacturing business, as well as a party leader in the state Senate.
In 2017, he was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. He held up the budget that he helped craft as a model of bipartisan progress. The legislature managed to fund education and other important priorities “without raising taxes,” he said.
The two-term Democratic congresswoman was first elected because of a split in the local Republican Party between Trump’s populist faction and more established Republicans.
Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican who voted for Donald Trump’s impeachment, had represented the district since 2011.
In 2022, Herrera Beutler was ousted by Trump-backed challenger Joe Kent, who then lost narrowly to Perez, refused to concede, and requested a recount, coming 2,633 votes short according to the Office of the Washington Secretary of State.
Kent ran against Perez two years later, but came up short again at the same time as Trump carried the district against Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by 13,921 votes.
Voter Sandra Raley is a small business owner in the district, the daughter of immigrants from New Zealand, a Christian, and someone who embraces both fiscal and social conservatism.
Raley voted for Braun over Perez in part because she thinks the general business climate in Washington, whose government is controlled by Democrats, is not good. Negative campaigning on another issue by Perez reinforced her decision.
“I really, really have been disgusted by her commercials,” Raley told The Epoch Times, of Perez ads targeting Braun on the issue of abortion.
“She just hammered over and over and over that he’s going to take away abortion and … it just disgusted me.”
Chaya Shlimowitz, a crypto-focused small business owner, was impressed enough with Perez that she worked phone banks for the campaign even though she lives several states east, in North Dakota.
“Marie is not only pro-crypto, she also fights to make life more affordable for working class families in Washington state,” she wrote in a post on X in late October.
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