VANCOUVER, Wash. — Democratic Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is expected to hold her seat in Washington's 3rd Congressional District, The Oregonian projected after new vote totals posted Thursday night.
The race has remained too close to call since election night, when county elections offices in the district still had tens of thousands of ballots to count. But subsequent updates have not been kind to Kent and have broadly maintained Gluesenkamp Perez's 12,000-vote lead over the Trump-endorsed Republican.
By 7 p.m. Thursday night, election officials had dropped results from about 32,000 more ballots. The gap between Gluesenkamp Perez and Kent narrowed only slightly, with her still holding a three-point lead — now about 11,000 votes.
While there are still votes to count, the vast majority are in Clark County, where Gluesenkamp Perez is favored.
After the race call, Gluesenkamp Perez released a statement, calling it a "decisive victory" — one that was all thanks to grassroots supporters in southwest Washington, and in spite of doubts from national pundits.
“Thank you, southwest Washington. Serving you in Congress is a profound honor and a gift I will never squander," the congresswoman said, in part. "I'm deeply grateful for this vote of confidence in the work I’ve done to set aside national politics and represent our community in Washington, D.C. I will continue to honestly reflect the independence of southwest Washington in everything I do as our voice in D.C. Our heritage as fiercely independent, loyal fighters for our community is as clear to me as it was the day my family and I decided to ask for the privilege of working for our community.
"I am deeply humbled by the tens of thousands of supporters who stood alongside me in this campaign, the patriotism and diligence of my staff, and for my friends and family – especially Dean – who have extended truth and grace to me on this challenging road. Your confidence in my ability to do this work and do it well has carried me through many long plane rides."
This 3rd District race is a rematch of 2022, when Gluesenkamp Perez and Kent faced one another without either one being an incumbent member of Congress. The race was even closer then. In the end, after a machine recount, Gluesenkamp Perez won by just 2,600 votes.
A Democrat taking the district for the first time in over a decade was just the last of many unexpected outcomes in 2022. Prior to that election year, moderate Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler seemed safely ensconced in the district seat. But her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021 prompted a revolt from within the Republican Party, making her a target in the 2022 primary.
In Washington, all candidates compete in a nonpartisan primary and the top two vote-getters advance to the general. When the dust settled in 2022, Kent and Gluesenkamp Perez emerged with the most votes, effectively unseating Herrera Beutler.
Both were political outsiders heading into the primary. Kent was a special forces veteran and Gold Star husband, while Gluesenkamp Perez owned a car repair shop with her husband.
Aware of her precarity as a Democrat in the 3rd District, Gluesenkamp Perez has been among the most bipartisan members of Congress, attempting to focus on hyper-local issues that impact working families directly — issues that she's acknowledged on the campaign trail are not "glamorous."
Kent, on the other hand, waged a much more global campaign, pointing to inflation under the Biden administration, immigration and the Mexico border, and U.S. money going toward foreign conflicts.
