First-term Democrat tries to hold on in Washington state district won by Trump in 2020

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SEATTLE (AP) — Among the nation’s most closely watched races is a rematch in southwestern Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, where first-term Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is defending her seat against Republican Joe Kent, a former Green Beret who has called for the impeachment of President Joe Biden.

Other campaigns of note in the state include the 8th Congressional District, where Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier is seeking a fourth term, and the 4th Congressional District in central Washington. There’s no danger of that seat flipping parties, but the incumbent there is Rep. Dan Newhouse, one of two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump. He faces a challenge from the right in Jerrod Sessler, a Navy veteran.

Here’s a look at Washington’s liveliest congressional races:

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3rd Congressional District

Gluesenkamp Perez, who owns an auto-repair shop with her husband, came out of nowhere two years ago to win a seat that hadn’t been in Democratic hands for over a decade. She beat the Trump-endorsed Kent by fewer than 3,000 votes out of nearly 320,000 cast.

Her predecessor, moderate Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, held office for six terms but failed to survive the 2022 primary after voting to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection. The district narrowly went for Trump in 2020, making it a crucial target for both parties this year.

The race gained additional attention last week when an arson attack struck a ballot box in Vancouver — the district’s biggest city — scorching hundreds of ballots. Another ballot box was hit across the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon. People who cast their votes in the targeted Vancouver drop box were urged to contact the county auditor’s office to receive replacement ballots.

During her tenure Gluesenkamp Perez has balanced progressive policies with some measures popular with Republicans, including securing the U.S.-Mexico border — something she criticizes Biden for failing to do — and introducing a constitutional amendment to force presidents to balance the budget.

She supports abortion access and has hammered Kent, who previously has said he supported a national abortion ban, for changing his position after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Kent now says abortion laws should be left up to the states.

Gluesenkamp Perez supports policies to counter climate change, but also speaks openly about being a gun owner. A top priority is pushing a “right to repair” bill that would help people get equipment fixed without having to pay exorbitant prices to the original manufacturer.

Kent is a former Green Beret who served 11 combat deployments before joining the CIA. His wife, Shannon, a Navy cryptologist, was killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 while fighting the Islamic State group in Syria, leaving him to raise their two young sons alone. Kent remarried last year.

His last campaign raised questions about his ties to white nationalists after he hired a Proud Boy as a consultant and, during a fundraiser, lavished praise on Joey Gibson, the founder of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer. Kent said he disavows white nationalism.

He has cited inflation and illegal immigration as top concerns.

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Kent and Gluesenkamp Perez disagree on a major local issue: the replacement of a major bridge across the Columbia River between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. Gluesenkamp Perez supports plans to replace the existing bridge. Kent has argued that a separate new bridge should be built while the old one is maintained. Plans for the replacement bridge would have “light rail that dumps downtown Portland’s problems into downtown Vancouver,” Kent said.

4th Congressional District

Newhouse’s bid for a sixth term is running up against Sessler, who was one of two Trump-endorsed candidates in the August primary. Together, Sessler and Tiffany Smiley took more than 52% of the vote — spelling trouble for the incumbent.

Newhouse is endorsed by the NRA and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and he has mostly steered clear of the subject of Trump. He’s instead focused on agriculture and border security in a state with millions of acres of pastures, orchards and cereal grain lands where immigrant labor is extremely important.

Sessler’s positions are in lockstep with Trump. He says he will fight for strong national security measures, including “an impenetrable border”; work to dismantle regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and other administrative agencies; and encourage tariffs and other sanctions on China.

“China’s obsession with global power, combined with its atheistic mindset, which removes the morality component, makes it a dangerous adversary,” Sessler said in one of many video statements about issues posted to his campaign website.

8th Congressional District

The 8th District, a mix of wealthy Seattle exurbs and central Washington farmland, had always been held by the GOP before incumbent Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier, a pediatrician, took office in 2019. She has survived a series of somewhat close races since then, taking about 52% or 53% of the vote.

Schrier combines progressive stances, such as protecting abortion rights, with an emphasis on securing highway money or funding for specialty crop research facilities. The Washington Farm Bureau endorsed her this year.

Schrier’s opponent is Carmen Goers, a commercial banker who says she is running to tamp down inflation, stop further regulation of American businesses, support law enforcement and cut back on crime. She also promised to “go to war with the Department of Education,” saying that instead of learning reading, writing and math, children are being “caught in the culture wars of the progressive left.”

Goers took 45% of the vote in the August top-two primary, compared to about 50% for Schrier. Two other Democrats combined for close to 5%.