Joe Kent is running for Congress against first-term Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) in Washington’s 3rd district, who beat him in 2022.
The contest is a rematch of Perez’s 2022 defeat of Kent by less than 1% of the vote (see results here). The district is nominally Republican, and the 2024 race is considered a tossup (see polling results here), so this election may be a nail-biter.
The late House speaker Tip O’Neill (D-MA) famously said, “All politics is local” (sic; details here), and this race will be no exception, but the outcome has national implications with the Democrats needing this seat to reclaim a House majority.
Kent is something of a GOP dream candidate in a closely-divided swing district like this one. His uncompromising stance against abortion is a turnoff for many women voters, and his close associations with extremists doesn’t help him with moderate voters.
He didn’t soften that image by making excuses for the Proud Boys, a violent militant group, at a GOP event on September 21, 2024 (read story here). “Look, the Proud Boys are the guys who went and fought antifa,” he said, then asserted they’re “just, it’s a group to scare left-wing people.”
Not quite. The SPLC has designated them a white nationalist hate group, and several of their leaders are serving multi-year prison sentences for organizing violence at the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Huffington Post says, “Kent hasn’t tried to hide his associations with extremist groups.” His website also appears to echo pro-Putin propaganda against Ukraine. So why would the working class voters of this district, which includes the Washington cities of Vancouver, Kelso, and Longview, elect someone like him?
It remains to be seen whether they will. The only poll in the race shows Perez slightly ahead. Meanwhile, he could use a comb; he perpetually looks like he just got out of bed.
The image below is a screen grab from a news site video; watch it here.
