Tension crackled between Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican challenger Joe Kent during an Oct. 2 debate at Lower Columbia College in Longview. Kent, wearing a crisp, tan suit, scowled. Perez, in red cowboy boots, a green dress and tweed blazer, repeatedly ran her hands through her tousled bangs.

The two candidates for Washington’s 3rd Congressional District largely refrained from looking at each other as they sparred over the biggest issues this election cycle, including immigration, the economy and foreign aid. The few times they shared a glance, they would turn away, shaking their heads in disbelief.

The mood was typical of this contentious race, which could decide control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The nonpartisan political handicapper Cook Political Report considers the district a toss-up.

Left: U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez chats Don Kemper, blacksmith for the Fort Vancouver Antique Equipment Association, while visiting the Clark County Fair on Aug. 3. Right: Republican challenger Joe Kent, left, talks with with Vancouver resident Bud Riker before a town hall July 29 at Felida Community Park. (Photos by Amanda Cowan of The Columbian)

The race has also drawn national attention because in many ways it is a microcosm of the national political climate.

In 2022, Kent, a square-jawed Green Beret veteran, Gold Star husband and ex-CIA officer, bested incumbent Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler in a hard-fought primary, ending her 12-year tenure. His campaign began in part as a rebuke of Herrera Beutler’s vote to impeach then-President Donald Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack. The political newcomer spoke loudly for a national ban on abortion with no exception for rape or incest and fully embraced Trump, who endorsed him.

Kent’s rise galvanized Perez, a Reed College graduate and auto-repair shop owner living in rural Skamania County. A political unknown and self-described moderate, she eked out one of the nation’s biggest upsets for Democrats, defeating Kent by just 2,629 votes. Her 2022 campaign emphasized working-class concerns and access to women’s reproductive care.

Perez ranked among the top 20 House lawmakers for bipartisanship on an index created by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University that measures how often members of Congress reach across party lines on legislation.

Meanwhile, Kent has softened his image. He now says he will oppose any new federal legislation on abortion, and his campaign is emphasizing local issues, such as the effort to replace the Interstate 5 Bridge. He has been campaigning since the beginning of 2023. The Clark County Republican Party provided him an endorsement to consolidate support early in the race. He handily defeated a more moderate Republican challenger in the primary, Camas City Councilor Leslie Lewallen.

Both candidates have been ferociously campaigning and door-knocking this year to win over undecided voters, pitching themselves as approachable, accessible and neighborly candidates who stand for the values of Southwest Washington.

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The race hasn’t always felt neighborly, however.

Both Perez and Kent accuse the other of being an extremist masquerading as a moderate. Perez refers to Kent as “divisive” and “violent.” Kent argues that Perez prioritizes the “military industrial complex” and “corporate pay masters” above her constituents, characterizing her bipartisan voting record as a “performance.”

“In some ways, it feels like the sequel,” Perez told The Columbian’s editorial board. “And the sequel is always worse.”

Who is Marie Gluesenkamp Perez?

Top: Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez keeps her balance during the women's obstacle pole event at the Skamania County Timber Carnival on Aug. 16 in Stevenson. Perez, a Democrat, has to walk a fine line in a voting district that tends to lean Republican. Second row left to right: Perez, second from left, learns more about a Green Diamond seed orchard during a Skamania County forest tour in Underwood on Aug. 16. Jon Cole of Green Diamond, left, talks with Perez while driving through rural Skamania County during the tour. The congresswoman previously introduced the bipartisan Treating Tribes and Counties as Good Neighbors Act, as well as the bipartisan Jobs in the Woods Act. Angel Knight of the Skamania County Chamber of Commerce, left, talks with Perez before a candidate forum Oct. 1 in Stevenson. Bottom row: In addition to being an elected official, Perez is the mother of a toddler, who went to the Skamania County Timber Carnival with her in August. (Photos by Amanda Cowan of The Columbia)

Perez, 36, was born in Houston. Her father was a pastor in an evangelical church, and she was homeschooled along with her three siblings through the seventh grade. She spent summers in Bellingham, where her family on her mother’s side goes back six generations and has deep ties to the timber industry.

After graduating from high school, Perez moved to Portland to attend Reed College, where she majored in economics. She met her husband, Dean Gluesenkamp, a mobile car mechanic, and the couple purchased an auto-repair and machine shop in Portland in 2012. They also bought land in Skamania County and built their own home.

At the beginning of 2022, Perez did not plan to run for Congress. Instead, she was focused on raising her 14-month-old son and running the auto shop with Dean. That changed when she learned about Kent, whose red yard signs were popping up where Herrera Beutler’s signs used to be.

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“I spent some time watching his YouTube videos, and realized this was a person with some really radical ideas,” she said. “My opponent truly is the most extreme candidate we have ever seen nominated in Washington state.”

Perez prides herself on advocating for rural and working-class people, and she decided to run to provide a moderate option for voters. It wasn’t her first foray into politics. She ran for, and lost, a seat on the Skamania County Board of Commissioners in 2016. In 2018, she began serving on the Underwood Conservation District board. She also ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Skamania County’s Public Utility District board.

Her campaign was considered a long shot, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did not offer its support. Trump won the district by 7 percentage points in 2016 and by 4 points in 2020, and many predicted that the district would continue to lean red. But disaffected Republicans and independents rallied behind Perez, handing her a victory that shocked the political world.

Who is Joe Kent?

Top: Joe Kent supporter Morgan MacArthur of Vancouver, left, fills up his tank while candidate Kent talks with Andreson Road Chevron owner Gary Bains on Sept. 6 at one of Let's Go Washington's gas station events in support of the I-2117 campaign. The group cut prices on gas to reflect the national average and paid the difference on every gallon sold during the event. Kent dropped by the station to chat with residents. Second row from left: Kent poses with supporters after the 3rd Congressional District debate Oct. 2 at Lower Columbia College in Longview. Kent spent years in the military and his tattoos can frequently be seen at events. Kent, center, poses for a photo with supporters at a candidate forum hosted by the Skamania County Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 1 in Stevenson. Bottom row: Joe Kent talks with the press, left, and supporters, right, at a primary election gathering Aug. 6 at Prairie Tavern in Brush Prairie. (Photos by Amanda Cowan of The Columbian)

Kent, 44, has a background of personal sacrifice and tragedy.

Kent was born in Sweet Home, Ore., and grew up in Portland. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at 18 and served for two decades, deploying 11 times, mostly to Iraq, before becoming a field operative for the CIA. In 2019, his wife, Shannon Kent, a Navy cryptologic technician, was killed by an Islamic State group suicide bomber in northeastern Syria, leaving Kent as the single father to a baby and a toddler.

After Shannon’s death, Kent began defending Trump’s foreign policy in the media. He wrote about how his experiences in the Special Forces had made him more skeptical of “pointless or unwinnable wars,” and he praised Trump for the way he treated veterans. He moved back to Portland with his sons to be near family before relocating to Yacolt.

“I chose to live here because I knew that this district’s people share my traditional conservative values,” he wrote in his candidate statement on the Green Beret PAC’s website.

He joined the Trump campaign in 2020 as a foreign affairs adviser. COVID-19 lockdowns, protests and the 2020 election galvanized his political ambitions. He believed that the election was “rigged” or “stolen” and that Rep. Herrera Beutler was wrong to vote to impeach Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

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On the campaign trail, he fully embraced Trump’s election-fraud claims and received his endorsement. In September 2022, he spoke at the Justice for J6 rally in Washington, D.C., organized by former Trump campaign staffer Matt Braynard, who is also a spokesman for the Kent campaign.

In 2022, the Associated Press reported that Kent had close ties with several known right-wing extremist groups and activists. Kent hired a campaign consultant that year who was a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group. Kent also allied himself with Joey Gibson, the founder of Christian far-right group Patriot Prayer. Some of the group’s members have been convicted of felony riot charges for their actions during protests in Portland.

Kent received backlash when it was reported that he had discussed social media strategy with Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist livestreamer. However, Kent disavowed Fuentes and renounced Fuentes’ endorsement after the association excited controversy. Kent posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that Fuentes’ focus on race and religion was contrary to his own political vision of “inclusive populism.” Fuentes then called on his “groyper army” — a group of alt-right and white nationalist activists, provocateurs and internet trolls — to smear his campaign.

Kent continues to disavow white nationalism.

Perez’s time in office

Top: U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez listens to Jon Cole of Green Diamond during a Skamania County forest tour Aug. 16 in Underwood. Second row from left: Maj. David Heart, left, and Liza Wells of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, center, pass out lifejackets to officials, including Perez, before taking a tour of the Yaquina dredging vessel on the Columbia River near the Interstate 5 Bridge. Perez, right, glances at the aging bridge. She has helped secure $1.2 billion for the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program. Campaign buttons and stickers for Perez are up for grabs at the Skamania Chamber of Commerce candidate forum in October. (Photos by Amanda Cowan of The Columbian)

Being a political underdog gave Perez some freedom in Congress, and she quickly established herself as a moderate representative willing to reach across party lines. She co-chairs the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition that she helped rebuild along with Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska and Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, both of whom won districts that Trump also won.

Perez is an idiosyncratic politician, often seen wearing handmade clothing. (She brought her dog, Uma Furman, to her meeting with The Columbian’s editorial board.) She speaks softly and deliberately, taking time to consider her words. She describes herself as an anomaly among the suits and ties of the capital.

Perez drew fire from her party when she voted last year against President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. She was one of only two Democrats who voted against the bill, citing its lack of support for career and technical education. She has since introduced multiple pieces of legislation in Congress aimed at raising awareness of trade education programs, and she hopes to encourage more young people to pursue paths in the skilled trades.

“My unique background as somebody who’s made my living in the trades and lives in a rural community — that is an asset in finding different avenues to chase down the priorities and values that my party supports,” she said.

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Perez has also pushed for bills to support small businesses and farmers, including legislation to offer 90-year, zero-interest loans for farmers to purchase as much as 160 acres to grow specialty crops. As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, Perez withheld support for the every-five-year farm bill because she said it didn’t do enough to help family farms.

Several powerful federal officials, including Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small, have visited the district with Perez. She took Buttigieg to the Interstate 5 Bridge and implored him to support federal funding for the effort to replace it, and she hosted a roundtable with Torres Small at a rural property to hear from farmers about their biggest needs.

In July, Perez helped secure nearly $1.5 billion in new federal funding to replace the century-old bridge.

“It was knives out to get that money,” she said. “I’m really proud to have the success of bringing home our federal tax dollars.”

Perez has received backlash from some of her constituents for voting to send military support to Israel, and Kent has repeatedly criticized her for supporting sending foreign aid to Ukraine.

“I think it’s critical that we’re supporting our allies, that we’re standing up to despotism,” she said.

Republicans have hounded Perez about her stance on immigration because of a comment she made on a podcast in March 2023: “Nobody stays awake at night worrying about the southern border,” she said. “People stay awake at night worrying that their kid is gonna relapse, or that, you know, someone’s gonna drop out of school or they’re gonna lose their house.”

However, Perez has since advocated for tightening border security, and she argues that she has “taken on the Biden administration” when it “failed to secure the southern border.” In mid-February, Perez co-sponsored the Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act, which would have tied foreign aid to immigration legislation, and she co-signed a letter to Biden calling on him to take immediate action on border security.

“We should know who’s coming in and out of our borders,” she said. “Ensuring (Border Patrol agents) have the resources to do that, ensuring that our ports have the technology to see what’s coming through our legal points of entry, ensuring that our asylum system isn’t being abused — that’s the kind of tangible, pragmatic work of building a bipartisan coalition.”

Before Biden exited the presidential race, Perez argued that he would lose to Trump. She has not indicated whether she will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

During her first term in Congress, Perez has had to balance her family life with the demands of representing the district. Her son is now 3 years old, and she regularly travels back and forth between her home in Skamania and her office in Washington, D.C.

“We have got to fight to preserve our independent culture in Southwest Washington, and that’s what I’m doing, because that’s how we fix the national policy,” she said. “I put my life in a blender to do this.”

Kent rebrands

Top: 3rd District Congressional candidate Joe Kent, R-Yacolt, speaks with voters at town hall July 29 at Felida Community Park. Second from from left, Supporters and voters gather at Felida Community Park on a cool day in July to listen to Kent speak. Supporters hold green signs at the Felida town hall event. Kent's signs changed from red to green for the 2024 election, and he changed some strategies in his second race for the 3rd District seat, focusing on local challenges and more outreach to a broader base of voters. Phil Kronebush of Vancouver, left, joins Kent as they wave at passing traffic at a Chevron station along Andresen Road Sept. 6 during an event supporting Let's Go Washington's I-2117. (Photos by Amanda Cowan of The Columbian)

In December 2022, Kent conceded after counties in the 3rd District conducted individual machine recounts at his request. He then immediately got to work laying the groundwork for his run in 2024.

“My campaign and I have talked with local leaders, past volunteers and activists to seek their advice,” he said in a January campaign video.

His second run would focus on local challenges and would include more outreach to a broader base of voters, he added.

His yard signs changed from red to green, and he began consolidating support early in the race. He received endorsements from all county GOP parties in the district. He amended some of his positions — abortion, for example — and he started holding almost daily town hall events at bars, restaurants and local parks across the district.

His campaign strategy focuses on frequent town halls, sometimes as many as two or three a day.

Each event follows a similar format. Kent, typically wearing a flannel shirt and blue jeans, opens with a stump speech on the Republican Party’s bread-and-butter issues this cycle, arguing that inflation, immigration and parental rights are the biggest issues facing the United States today. Then, he takes all questions from the audience, sometimes going back and forth with people for as long as two hours. Kent often speaks with swagger and assuredness reminiscent of Trump’s style. If elected, Kent argues he will prioritize cutting unnecessary government spending, securing the southern U.S. border and imposing large tariffs on imports.

He aggressively attacks Perez’s voting record, arguing that she is in lockstep with the Biden administration despite her bipartisan votes and moderate reputation. He implores attendees to visit Mariewatch.com, a website put together by his campaign that lambasts her record. (Find Perez’s office voting record here.) He routinely criticizes her vote against Republican-backed immigration legislation, including House Resolution 2, also known as the Secure the Border Act of 2023, as well as her support for legislation rejecting restrictions on transgender athletes.

“Men don’t belong in women’s bathrooms or women’s athletics, but Marie Perez voted with the radicals in her party to let men into your daughter’s bathroom,” he said.

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Kent has also tempered his claims that the 2020 election was rigged or stolen. Attendees at his events often express concern about election fraud, and Kent typically redirects the conversation to ballot harvesting, the legal practice of gathering absentee ballots and delivering them to polling places. He decries mail-in voting, but he encourages his supporters to vote by any means necessary.

“I wish we could go back to voting in person where you actually had to show your ID,” he said. “But in order for us to actually enact that someday, we have to win within the current system.”

He echoes Trump, arguing that high turnout among Republicans will make the election “too big to rig.”

The effort to replace the I-5 Bridge, which has become a flash-point issue in the race, could rest on this election. Perez has secured billions in federal funding for the project. However, Kent doesn’t favor replacing the bridge. Instead, he wants the current bridge to be retrofitted for local traffic and to construct a third bridge elsewhere on the Columbia River. He vehemently opposes the inclusion of tolls and light rail.

“It’s going to be the fentanyl, antifa expressway,” he said.

Like Perez, Kent also balances his family life with the demands of his campaign. He remarried last year. He regularly posts photos and videos on social media of himself and his two sons spending time together, including camping in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and fishing on the Columbia River.

Kent published a book about his late wife earlier this year entitled “Send Me: The True Story of a Mother at War.” In the introduction, he addressed his sons about the loss of their mother.

“As confusing and hopeless as her death was, it brought some clarity to my life. I could not deploy anymore. Life is about you boys, not my desire to fight or avenge her death,” he wrote. “My new mission is raising you, Colt and Josh, into the young men your mom would be proud of.”

The race heats up

Top: Director Chase Amen works behind the scenes as Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, and Republican challenger Joe Kent debate Oct. 7 at KATU studios in Portland. The debate was one of several in the rematch between the candidates. Second row, from left: Perez comments during the early October debate. Campaign signs for Kent and Perez can be seen dotted along highways and roads throughout Clark County. Kent pauses for a moment during the Oct. 7 debate. (Photos by Amanda Cowan of The Columbian)

The race for the 3rd Congressional District did not attract large amounts of national spending in 2022. This year, national money has flooded in.

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Perez had raised $9.9 million and Kent had $2.3 million as of Sept. 30.

According to the nonprofit Open Secrets, which tracks money in politics, outside groups have spent $6.1 million opposing Kent and $3.5 million opposing Perez as of early October. 

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, visited the district in August for a Kent fundraiser.

“We’re very bullish about November,” Johnson said. “The road to the majority for the House Republicans runs through this state, and this district is an important one.”

The contest is a dead heat, according to an October survey from the Northwest Progressive Institute, a left-leaning nonprofit. Andrew Villeneuve, the nonprofit’s executive director, thinks that the strength of the candidates’ field operations could be pivotal.

“This is a toss-up race, where the polling couldn’t be closer,” he said. “And we all know that toss-ups can go either way.”

Ballots will be mailed in Clark County by Oct. 16. Election Day is Nov. 5.

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The candidates on key issues

Here’s where U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, and Republican challenger Joe Kent stand on key issues: