Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, left, and state Sen. Leader John Braun, both candidates for the Washington’s 3rd Congressional District seat.
Left image: Jenny Kane/AP; Right image: Jenny Kane for OPB
Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is leading Republican state Sen. John Braun in the race for Southwest Washington’s competitive U.S. House seat, according to early returns Tuesday night.
If results hold, the victory would be the Democrat’s third electoral win in a district Donald Trump won in each of his three presidential contests.
Gluesenkamp Perez, the co-owner of an auto repair shop and advocate of rural industries and skilled trades, displays a brand of politics that can be hard to pin down. She votes with fellow Democrats most of the time in the House, but has also made high-profile defections and consistently ranks as one of the most bipartisan members of Congress.
Several dozen supporters of Gluesenkamp Perez mingled in the ballroom of The Academy in downtown Vancouver Tuesday night.
“We are proud and confident that we are going to carry this seat,” Gluesenkamp Perez told the crowd in a speech after the first results came in.
The 3rd District is a key, nationally-watched toss-up House race. It remained unclear as early returns rolled in late Tuesday which party would control Congress by the end of the night. The Vancouver ballroom erupted into applause after media outlets began to call a Texas Senate race for Democrat James Talarico.
“I have talked to thousands of voters over this year, and they have told me that they have lost faith in Congress,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “But Southwest Washington is a fundamental part of rebuilding a Congress that is loyal and faithful to our community.”
“The way that I have seen people operating in Congress is like a frat house,” she said. “And they act with impunity.”
The next Congress, she said, needs to pass an “anti-corruption package,” mentioning ethics standards and banning stock trading.
Gluesenkamp Perez has leaned into her independent brand despite frustration from many progressive voters in Washington’s 3rd District, which spans thousands of square miles of forests, farmland, industrial waterfronts and growing cities. The district was previously held for six terms by Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, who lost to a polarizing figure, Joe Kent, in the 2022 primary.
Republicans were hopeful this year that Braun, a more conventional candidate than Kent, would be able to flip the seat. But many political observers viewed the race as Gluesenkamp Perez’s to lose amid a national political environment that favored Democrats.
In the 2022 and 2024 elections, Gluesenkamp Perez faced Kent, narrowly defeating him — by 2,629 votes — in 2022, and by 16,123 votes in 2024. The AP called both of those races the Saturday after Election Day.
<In the lead-up to this Election Day, Gluesenkamp Perez and Braun separated themselves on issues like the Iran war, immigration enforcement, and a state ballot initiative to ban transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams. The race was also marked by millions of dollars in outside spending, negative TV ads and Trump’s endorsement of Braun.
“It was never about the President’s endorsement,” Braun said to reporters gathered at his campaign event in Chehalis on Tuesday night. “It was always about running a campaign that was focused on Southwest Washington.”
Braun said he would wait for more ballots to be counted to concede. He currently serves as the minority leader in the state Senate and has been in the legislature since 2013. He previously spent 31 years in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve. He’s also President of Braun Northwest, a family-owned emergency vehicle manufacturing company in Chehalis.
