Kent talked for more than an hour Thursday morning in Vancouver before leaving for Pe Ell and Chehalis, and will be back in Clark County for more discussions with voters next week

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

Joe Kent started the day with a town hall meet-and-greet in Vancouver and the plan was to have another in Pe Ell in the afternoon and one more in Chehalis in the evening.

That was just the Thursday schedule.

He has 15 more such events scheduled for this month, all across Southwest Washington.

Kent has started his final push to win over voters in the race for Washington’s 3rd Congressional District.

Thursday in front of a small gathering at Clark County Republican Headquarters in east Vancouver, Kent talked for more than an hour, answering questions on a number of subjects.

“I like getting out and engaging with people,” Kent said. “We’re seeing a good combination of new faces. When you’re further away from the election, you get your die-hard supporters out. The closer you get (to the election), you get people who are truly undecided.”

One woman at Thursday morning’s event said she was an independent who votes for whoever she wants. She is not beholden to one party. She came with a list of questions.

“That’s exciting, to have conversations,” Kent said. “It’s an opportunity to really connect with voters.”

That includes connecting with Republicans who were not on board Kent’s campaign two years ago when Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez won the election by less than one percentage point, or roughly 2,600 votes.

The research suggests many moderate Republicans voted for Perez or did not vote.

“My message to them would be, ‘Please come to one of my town halls and have a conversation with me. I think that we’d probably agree on 99 percent of the big issues,’” Kent said.

He said the stakes are so high that Republicans do need to unite.

“If you are an independent, a moderate, or you consider yourself to be a Republican but maybe there is something you don’t like about me, take a look at Marie Perez’s record,” Kent said. “Then come to one of our town halls. Let’s have a conversation.”

Among the topics during Thursday’s town hall discussion was the Interstate Bridge project. 

Kent said the current proposed plan does very little for Southwest Washington, but it is great for the Portland side of the bridge. He noted that his opponent owns a business in Portland. 

“They are going to replace a three-lane bridge with a three-lane bridge,” he said, incredulously. “No traffic relief, but we are getting light rail which has been rejected by the voters of Clark County … and we’re going to get tolls … which disproportionately target Washingtonians.”

Kent said a third bridge over the Columbia River in the Vancouver-Portland area is “realistic” if political leaders were to get their priorities in order. Kent is for upgrading the current, historic Interstate Bridge, but also wants to look for a new location for a third bridge, to allow commerce to bypass Portland and reconnect with Interstate 5 down the road.

This should be a federal project, he said.

“The federal government shouldn’t be funding foreign wars. They should be building a new bridge in between two states,” Kent said.

As the plan sits now, Kent is afraid it will not help Southwest Washington residents.

“We’re going to get a three-lane bridge for a three-lane bridge. No congestion relief. We’re going to get light rail that dumps downtown Portland’s problems into Vancouver. Oh, by the way, if you want to use that new 3-lane bridge, you have to pay for it with your state taxes, your federal taxes, and if you drive across it, you have to pay for it again. It’s a horrible deal.”

Kent is disappointed in the priorities of the current administration. To him, it seems as if the federal government is more concerned with conflicts overseas or spending money on illegal immigration. He wondered where do the American people rate with the current administration?

“How can we responsibly send money to any of these places when we can’t secure our own border? How can we send money to secure other people’s borders when our border is open? How can we continue to send billions and billions of dollars when we have people here in our country who are in need? I’m not saying overnight we are going to pull out of these commitments, but what I am saying is we have to get our priorities straight.”

He hammered on the state of the southern border as well as inflation, blaming his political opponents for the messes they have made. He said Democrats claim to be the firefighters who are ready to put out the fires, forgetting that they were the arsonists who started the fires in the first place.

The election is less than a month away, and candidates are honing in on their messages.

“I really look forward to … connecting with people who might still have questions about me in the final 25 days or so,” Kent said.

He won’t be hard to find in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District.  

Note: Joe Kent has 15 town halls on the schedule for the rest of October in the 3rd Congressional District, from Kelso, to Napavine, to Mossrock, and more. Here are the events scheduled for the Vancouver area through the end of the month: 

• Sunday, Oct. 13: Jerry’s Corner in Battle Ground, 2 p.m.
• Monday, Oct. 14: Brock’s Bar and Grill in Woodland, noon
• Wednesday, Oct. 16: Aero Club in Vancouver, 5:30 p.m. 
• Friday, Oct. 18: Clark County Republican HQ in Vancouver, 3 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 19: Ridgefield Library, 3 p.m.
• Friday, Oct. 25: Billy Blues in Vancouver, noon
• Saturday, Oct. 26: JB’s Taphouse, Camas, 10 a.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 26: Brock’s Bar and Grill, Woodland, 5 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct. 29: Camas Community Center, 10 a.m.
• Tuesday, Oct. 29: Clark County Republican HQ in Vancouver, 7 p.m.

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