Third Congressional District candidates Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Joe Kent to square off tonight on KATU News at 6 p.m.
For the second time in less than a week, the candidates in the 3rd Congressional District race for the U.S. House of Representatives will square off face to face in a live debate tonight (Oct. 7) at 6 p.m.
The event will be broadcast live on Portland’s KATU News, who is partnering with Willamette University to host the debate between Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican challenger Joe Kent.
The two candidates participated in a live debate hosted by the Cowlitz Civil Dialogue Project on Wednesday at Lower Columbia College in Longview. That event drew media attention from Seattle to Portland due to the high profile nature of the congressional race.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) issued a statement on what it described as Joe Kent’s decisive victory in last week’s debate.
“Green Beret veteran Joe Kent laid out a common-sense vision to fix the crises keeping southwest Washington families up at night, like the skyrocketing cost of living or the fentanyl epidemic killing local kids,’’ said NRCC Spokesperson Ben Peterson. “Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s debate performance exposed her as a fraud who can’t defend her radical record. While dodging questions about her lockstep support for Biden, Harris and the Democrat agenda and votes against border security, Portland Perez proved she’s just another liberal masquerading as a moderate to dupe voters.”
Perez declined to participate in a September event hosted by The Chronicle in Centralia and Kent declined to participate in an event in Vancouver scheduled by the League of Women Voters of Clark County.
Perez defeated Kent by less than 1 percent of the vote in the 2022 general election. This year’s race between the two candidates is expected to be a key factor in deciding which party takes control of the House of Representatives in 2025.
