A challenger for Washington’s Third Congressional District could complicate things next year as Republican Leslie Lewallen has officially kicked off her campaign against fellow GOP member Joe Kent.
On Sept. 23, Camas City Councilor Leslie Lewallen hosted an official campaign kickoff for her bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Joined by former U.S. Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley and conservative talk radio show host John Carlson, Lewallen said the Democrat Gluesenkamp Perez wasn’t the moderate she claimed she was while campaigning last year.
“I am a fighter. I fought for my daughter’s life, I fought for our community on the City Council, and I am going to continue fighting for our state from Washington D.C.,” Lewallen said in a campaign announcement. “I promise to fight until we defeat Portland progressive [Gluesenkamp] Perez and return sanity back to Southwest Washington. Our state deserves better, and I intend to deliver.”
A former deputy prosecuting attorney in King County, Lewallen received a number of endorsements in the days following her campaign kickoff, including former Republican leaders in state government, including former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna.
“Having known and worked with Leslie for over 20 years and now witnessing her exemplary record as Camas City Counselor for Ward 3, I am confident that she would be a force to be reckoned with in Congress,” McKenna said in a Lewallen campaign release.
Former Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has also supported Lewallen. In a published letter to the editor, he addressed the looming issue that is largely absent from Lewallen’s campaign materials — that of Kent’s second try to take the congressional seat.
Kent already has the endorsement of both the state and Clark County Republican Party committees. The retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer ran last year, knocking out incumbent Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler in the primary election before losing to Gluesenkamp Perez by roughly 2,600 votes.
In his letter, Reed said a rematch among candidates hasn’t led to a flipped vote in two decades for federal or statewide office in Washington. He called Kent an “ill-suited candidate” who was likely not to beat Gluesenkamp Perez should he challenge her in November 2024.
“History warns us that another rematch with Kent would yield the same result,” Reed, who served as the top statewide election official in Washington from 2001 to 2013, wrote.
Though the official campaign kickoff was only a week ago, Lewallen already has some fundraising on the books. According to the Federal Elections Commission, her campaign had raised about $142,000 through June 30. The next quarterly filing will cover receipts from July 1 through Sept. 30.
That total is behind that of Kent, who had raised about $433,000 by the end of June, and Gluesenkamp Perez, who had about $1.5 million raised up to that date for her re-election.
Having a challenger from his own party is not new to Kent. In the 2022 race, multiple Republicans announced their bids to unseat Herrera Beutler after she voted to impeach former President Donald Trump following the storming of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2021.
The August 2022 primary featured five GOP candidates on the ballot, with the three top Republicans splitting more than 61% of the vote.
