The Washington Examiner reports that Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has defeated Republican Joe Kent in the race for Washington’s 3rd Congressional District.
Perez is being projected as the winner even though only 70% of the results have been reported. The tally, thus far, is 154,169 for Perez to 149,548 for Kent, or 50.76% to 49.24%, respectively.
Another loss
One of the significant things about Perez’s victory is that she managed to flip a red seat blue.
In fact, Perez, here, managed to pick up a House seat that Democrats have not been able to get their hands on since 2011.
Most recently, the seat had been held by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA). Beutler, though, ended up being primaried, which many have attributed to the fact that Beutler was one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump.
Whatever the case may be, Kent ended up becoming the Republican in the race, and he ran as a pro-Trump, pro-MAGA candidate, which Perez used against him by repeatedly referring to him as an “extremist.”
Perez, the owner of an auto repair shop, labeled herself as centrist and campaigned on combating inflation and supporting abortion rights. Apparently, her strategy worked, as now she will be representing Washington’s 3rd Congressional District in the House.
The bigger picture
Control of the U.S. House of Representatives is still up for grabs.
At the time of this writing, the score is Republicans 211, Democrats 204. One side needs to get to 218 to secure control of the House for the next two years. Republicans continue to be favored, although the longer the counting continues, the more the Democrats seem to gain ground.
Meanwhile, we do know that the Democrats will retain control of the U.S. Senate. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) reportedly clinched the senate for the Democrats by defeating Republican Adam Laxalt on Saturday evening.
Winning the House is the Republicans’ only chance now to stop President Joe Biden and the Democrats from being able to impose their agenda on the American people.
Even though many days have passed since election day, it remains unclear when the vote counting will be finished.