CHEHALIS, Wash. (AP) — Washington state Sen. John Braun announced Tuesday that he will run next year for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House seat held by Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Braun, the Republican minority leader of the Democratic-controlled state Senate, will be vying for a competitive, conservative-leaning district in southwestern Washington that was carried by President Donald Trump last year.
Braun said in a statement issued by his campaign that he would work to secure borders and maintain national defense. The statement said Braun is the president of a family-owned manufacturer of emergency vehicles who served in the Navy for 31 years.
“I know how to fight bad policy — and how to craft good policy that makes a difference for people here in Southwest Washington. I look forward to working with President Trump on a positive agenda that gets America back on the right track,” he said.
Gluesenkamp Perez, an auto repair shop owner, flipped Washington’s largely rural 3rd Congressional District in 2022.
The six-term Republican who previously held the seat, Jaime Herrera Beutler, did not make it out of the primary that year. Right-wing constituents angry about her vote to impeach Trump instead cast their lot with Joe Kent, a former Army special operations soldier who promoted Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen and touted conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.
Gluesenkamp Perez beat Kent by less than a percentage point in 2022. Heading into a rematch with Kent last fall, she was considered one of the most vulnerable members of Congress but won reelection by nearly 4 points.
Gluesenkamp Perez has described political polarization as destructive to democracy and used a nuts-and-bolts approach to governing.
Some progressives in her district have said she has not pushed back hard enough against Trump’s second presidency. But some consultants say her approach could help boost her support among independents and moderate Republicans.
Federal elections filings show that Democrat Brent Hennrich, a former movie theater operations manager who has dismissed Gluesenkamp Perez’s moderation as the wrong approach, and Republican businessman Antony Barran are also running for the seat.
