Kent had previously received the endorsement of the Clark County Republican Party
Ken Vance, editor
Clark County Today
The Washington State Republican Party (WSRP) Central Committee has endorsed candidate Joe Kent in his Third Congressional District campaign. Kent was previously endorsed by the Clark County Republican Party (CCRP) as the preferred candidate to challenge incumbent Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the 2024 general election.
The latest endorsement took place this past weekend at the Washington State Republican Party quarterly meeting in Olympia. Kent received 75 percent approval in the vote of the county chairs, committee men and women from the state’s 39 counties. He needed just a simple majority to receive the endorsement from the WSRP.
Kent had also been previously endorsed by the precinct committee officers (PCOs) of five other Republican bodies in the counties that make up the Third Congressional District. Of the counties fully in the Third Congressional District (Thurston County is partially in the district), only the Pacific County Republican Party has yet to endorse Kent, who lost to Perez by less than 1 percent of the vote in the 2022 general election.
Prior to the vote for the early endorsement, a vote was needed to suspend the meeting rules because the effort to have the WSRP endorse Kent was not on the convention agenda. That vote was taken and the two-thirds majority was exceeded, allowing the early endorsement debate and vote. The agenda did include the consideration of new convention endorsement rules later in the meeting. After the vote to endorse Kent was taken, the new convention endorsement rules were approved for future candidates seeking endorsement from the WSRP moving forward.
According to CCRP Chairman Matt Bumala, “early endorsement allows Joe many resources from the state, opens up resources and help on a national level, and gives him financial aid that would otherwise have to be raised through individual donations since Joe doesn’t take PAC money and would give him the runway time to effectively beat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who is proving to be far from a moderate and more of an extreme leftist.’’
Bumala disputed the narrative that the early endorsement effort is a top-down strategy. He points out that the effort has been initiated by the PCOs from the county parties in the Third Congressional District. Furthermore, Bumala believes that was also exemplified by the vote of the central committee by the WSRP.
“The narrative that’s being spun is one that claims people are being bullied, that the grassroots are being ignored, that this is ‘top-down leadership,’’’ Bumala said. “The irony is that it’s literally the opposite of all those things. PCOs have spoken and requested this. This is coming from the bottom up. Nobody is being bullied or manipulated. The fact is, Joe is very popular for good reason. Voters are disappointed with our party and how we didn’t get him across the finish line. Their frustration isn’t just that he lost, it’s that our party got in our own way. That’s being fixed now.’’
Camas City Council Member Leslie Lewallen has also filed in the Third Congressional District race. Despite being previously recognized as a candidate in her campaign for a seat on the Camas City Council, the CCRP declined to recognize Lewallen in the Third Congressional District race.
“Leslie and anyone else is welcome to run for Congress,’’ Bumala said. “It just won’t be with the backing of the CD3 counties or the state.’’
Bumala left the weekend convention with optimism for the direction of the WSRP.
“The WSRP has taken a true conservative turn and I’m encouraged by that,’’ Bumala said. “It’s definitely changing in a good way.’’
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Personally I am very happy with the decision to make an early endorsement of Joe Kent. If this race goes anything like 2020 he is going to need all the help he can get as soon as he can get it. There was millions of dollars spent, from all kinds of sources, including “republicans”, to get him defeated to Perez. Before her campaign started, she was showing us where her true position was, by repairing antifa and blm leaf blowers so they could blow the tear gas back towards law enforcement officers. That is not a moderate action. Now that she is in office we can see her voting record which is not moderate either. We definitely need to replace her and I think Joe Kent is a good choice. I have seen alot of negative comments about Kent on this site. I don’t know what research of their own these people have done, but I hope that these people will take the time to attend some of Kent’s town hall meetings this time around and ask him face to face about their concerns. I have talked to him several times, during and after his meetings and am very comfortable that he is concerned about the same issues I am. Please everyone do your own due diligence and don’t just believe the expensive ads.
Jaime Herrera Beutler held that position from 2011, a Republican seat, Joe was unable to defeat Perez (who I believe performed poorly and uniformed in the debates). And without a vote we are required to support joe? We already have a government that doesn’t support our views and now the Republican doesn’t support our views? Let the voters decide!
Marie Perez is a moderate Democrat and so superior to Kent, a Trump wanna be.
Please Jim, explain to me what is moderate about Perez! Is it her support of “mostly peaceful” riots where people actually were killed and both public and private property destroyed. Or is it her lockstep voting with our “moderate” governor.
And we would expect a leftist to claim anything else?
I like your support on someone enamored of and supporting antifa: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vulnerable-house-dem-brags-plan-transform-moderate-blue-dog-coalition-rural-antifa-group?fbclid=IwAR2tpqeE2NPSscmLcdVuHk7GzgxPzN0LVJ6l_4frqrolvHbJft8JqKsc61A
Yeah. “Moderate.”
You must have missed the debate between her and Joe.
It sounds like you are saying she spoke like she is moderate. Talk is cheap, especially campaign speach. Is she acting/voting that way now?
How can they possibly endorse Joe Kent!? I’m apalled. I’m an independent, I vote for the individual, not the party. I’m 80yrs old–have voted for both Republicans & Democrats–only once did the Presidential candidate I voted for win the election. (I won’t say who that was but it wasn’t Trump!–I had to hold my nose & vote for Hillary) I can remember the good old days when political parties worked together for the benefit of everyone–negotiating reasonable compromises. Nowdays everyone is either categorized as an extreme “leftist” or on the “extreme far right” based solely on what political party they belong to w/no concern for the interests of the minority. This “winner take all” behavior is not how a Democracy is supposed to function.. As a voter, I find myself faced with choosing between the lesser of two evils and it’s getting increasingly harder to choose. And now—Republicans are endorsing Joe Kent!? Talk about extremes all you want–Joe Kent is a Trump supporter! Perez isn’t as far to the left as Joe Kent is to the right. I can only conclude that they think he’ll be as skillful as Trump in labeling her an “extreme leftist” via social media ,etc. It won’t be a fair fight. The lesser of two evils in this case for me is easier—I’ll voter for Perez. I’ll never vote for Kent, or anyone who thinks the election was stolen or that Jan. 6th was a reasonable response. I wonder if we are already on the path to destruction & the endorsement of Joe Kent by Republicans in our state means we could be past the point of no teturn. There must still be somne Republicans in office who are as concerned as I am..
Sally Lyons… Please realize that Joe Kent is not Donald Trump. He is in fact a very well informed individual willing to continue to serve our country through service to us in this district. Marie is that far Left. She voted for advancing the funding for transgendering children! She has taken some very far left votes and some more centristic ones. Point is if you really believe in protecting children in this country she is not your gal. Consider that since the generations to follow will pay for the vote you take.
Everything I have heard he sounds just like Donald Trump, MTG and the other mis-fits. He hasn’t said a thing that o=would make me support him in any piblic position.
I want to remind people that all voters in Washington State are effectively independents since our state laws do not allow us to declare a party when we register. After living most my life in Oregon I finally came to realize a few short years ago that the ONLY way to win this state back with such a jumbled mess of election laws and open primaries was for the party pcos to declare a preferred candidate BEFORE the primary giving the voters some direction. They can follow it or not that is up to them. These voters declare themselves Republicans or Democrats ONLY when voting for the party leadership in their precincts. I believe that means they EXPECT us to provide direction in order to win. I do not always like the votes of the pcos in the county central committee as they seem to have cliques and sometimes that comes off very wrong or less than professional. However, when it comes to a vote for the endorsement of a 3rd CD candidate I believe that it is not only okay by necessary. Preferably other candidates from our party will decide to put us first not their own selves which will require them to drop back out. This isn’t about them… it is about you and me! Thanks Matt Bumala and go team!
I will not vote for Joe Kent, no matter what. He is a radical and does nothing to bring people together. It is not democracy to let a few chosen few decide who the candidate will be. I call that corruption! At least I have another choice and Marie will be my choice.