CHEHALIS, Wash. (AP) — Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez carried a dull kitchen knife and two pairs of rusty scissors through a county fairgrounds south of Seattle.
She handed them to Beverly Phoenix, who sat hunched over a table in the back of an exhibit hall, volunteering to help neighbors breathe new life into old tools. Now she offered advice to a member of Congress on using a Dremel, a handheld oscillating device, to sharpen the blades.
It was an unassuming campaign stop that reinforced Gluesenkamp Perez’s message of self sufficiency. The owner of an auto repair shop with her husband, Gluesenkamp Perez has positioned herself as someone who can help her party bridge the divide between urban and rural, blue collar and white collar, left and right.
If Democrats are going to take back control of the U.S. House, they need to hold districts like this one in Southwest Washington, which twice elected Gluesenkamp Perez while also supporting President Donald Trump in all of his campaigns. Although the party has been fixated on whether to accommodate the burgeoning progressive movement, Democrats’ willingness to make room for more moderate and unorthodox members could be even more important to winning and maintaining a durable majority.
“We are a really independent community. What we want is respect for our priorities, for our values,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. When that causes friction with party leaders, she said, her job is “explaining my community to D.C., not letting D.C. try to define my community’s priorities.”
To prove herself, Gluesenkamp Perez, 38, will have to win a very different kind of campaign this year. In her last two elections, she faced Republican Joe Kent, who had connections to extremists. Now she’s up against a more mainstream opponent in John Braun, a businessman and state legislator with a better shot at appealing to the district’s moderate voters.
Gluesenkamp Perez is a lightning rod for progressive criticism
The Pacific Northwest has a reputation as a bastion of progressive politics, but Washington’s 3rd Congressional District is more complex. It includes both the northern portion of the Portland, Oregon, metro area and expansive rural territory with economies centered around fishing, logging and manufacturing.
By balancing those competing interests, Gluesenkamp Perez sometimes finds herself in a lonely group of Democrats siding with Republicans.
She opposed President Joe Biden’s student debt relief and voted for a Republican election proposal backed by Trump. She supported the Laken Riley immigration bill and defense legislation that included restrictions on abortion and climate change initiatives.
She voted to censure fellow Democratic Reps. Al Green of Texas and Rashida Tlaib, and she introduced a resolution to reprimand Democratic Rep. Chuy Garcia for quietly maneuvering to essentially hand his seat to a trusted aide.
Tensions flared again last month when Gluesenkamp Perez twice voted with Republicans on procedural issues, an apostasy in the traditions of Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are expected to stick with party leaders when it comes to such matters.
As a consequence, Republicans were able to force a vote on a resolution condemning socialism, putting some Democrats in an awkward spot in an election year.
“I get upset with her too at times, but you know, I also understand that she represents 800,000-plus people and that’s 800,000-plus opinions for differing views,” said Dale Benjamin, a 66-year-old retiree and self-described “Bernie progressive” who lives in Battle Ground. “I’m very thankful to her that she’s willing to do that, especially in such a divisive place and time that we’re in right now.”
Gluesenkamp Perez has prioritized legislation that bolsters her blue collar identity and the specific industries in her district. She’s a strong proponent of “right to repair” legislation that would ensure consumers and independent businesses can repair things like tractors, cars and digital devices without going to the manufacturer.
And she’s gone to legislative war against the sea lions that congregate around Columbia River dams, feasting on salmon and steelhead before they can reach fishermen. She has pushed for legislation that would make it easier to kill animals that she calls “Corolla-sized vermin.”
“People sometimes treat my agenda like it’s like quirky, and I’m like, this is actually very normal where I’m from,” Gluesenkamp Perez said.
More moderate Democrats are likely headed to Washington
Democrats can’t take control of the House without winning at least a dozen districts that voted for Trump.
If they pull it off, many of the party’s newest members of Congress — the ones who could deliver the majority — could resemble Gluesenkamp Perez more than the democratic socialists who won a string of primaries in blue districts this year.
Democratic leaders will need an agenda that speaks to moderates if they want to stay in power, said Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a Democratic group that advocates for centrist policies.
“What Democrats need to realize, when you win these seats, you’re in rental property. You don’t own them,” Kessler said. “You can keep them as long as you tend to them, but it just takes one bad cycle and they’re gone.”
Speaking of Gluesenkamp Perez, Kessler said “she’s carved out her own brand and she is able to survive in a hostile environment.”
“And if she needs some leeway to do it, then she needs that leeway,” he added.
Her electoral formula has worked so far. She finished 7 points ahead of Kamala Harris, Democrats’ last presidential candidate, in 2024, winning by 3 points while Harris lost the district by 4.
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Gluesenkamp Perez correctly challenges billionaires and corporations but sometimes “undermines Democrats just for the performative sake of opposing Democrats.”
“I view her politically like a teenager who’s developing muscles and learning how to use them,” Green said, “with an expectation that her punches will be stronger and aimed in a better direction more and more over time.”
John Braun is a military veteran, business executive and legislator
Ambulance, fire trucks and other emergency vehicles filled the parking lot at Braun Northwest, a manufacturer that sits alongside Interstate 5, the main thoroughfare through the district.
John Braun’s parents founded the business 40 years ago, and he was named president in 2006.
A retired Navy captain in the submarine service, a business executive and the Republican leader in the state Senate, Braun, 59 has the kind of pedigree that dominated his party before Trump remade it in his image.
It’s far different from Joe Kent, the party’s nominee who lost to Gluesenkamp Perez in 2022 and 2024. Kent’s campaign team included a consultant who was a member of the Proud Boys, and Kent supported conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Kent went on to lead the National Counterterrorism Center under Trump, resigning in March because of opposition to the Iran war.
Braun predicted that he would have more appeal to independent-minded voters, saying in an interview that Kent “wasn’t a good fit for the district.”
Gluesenkamp Perez has focused on “marginal issues” affecting slivers of her constituency and, despite some high-profile disputes, hasn’t broken with Democrats on “the things that really matter,” Braun said.
“It’s a very independent district, and while I think she has said ‘independent’ a lot, there’s a lot of frustration that she really hasn’t been all that independent,” Braun said.
Sandy Johnson, a 74-year-old Republican from Battle Ground, said Braun’s background in business is appealing, and he doesn’t see any difference between Gluesenkamp Perez and other Democrats.
“I can’t stand her. I think she’s a liar. She’s a manipulator,” Johnson said as he walked his dog in a park near his home. “She’s directed by them, and she follows them, not us.”