It’s been a long road.
Since winter of 2021, Joe Kent, R-Yacolt, has been vying for the seat in Congress held by Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District. Well over a year later on Wednesday, Dec. 21, Kent finally threw in the towel.
Spurred to candidacy by Herrera Beutler’s vote to impeach then-president Donald Trump, who endorsed Kent, there were questions throughout the race whether Kent would accept the results of the race no matter who they favored. Time and again he answered, “yes.”
On Dec. 21, he upheld his bargain, but not before paying over $48,000 for a district-wide recount, which revealed changes in the double digits to the race that was split by around 3,000 votes in favor of his opponent, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Washougal.
On Dec. 20, the final county, Skamania, wrapped up the machine recount, which would have had to reveal thousands of votes in Kent’s favor to change the tides. The Skamania County Auditor’s Office reported the recount added one ballot in favor of Gluesenkamp Perez and one additional write-in ballot.
In a statement from his campaign, Kent wrote, “I called my opponent to concede and offer my congratulations on her victory.”
He continued, saying over 81,000 Republicans didn’t vote in the general election for the race, writing Democrats have “taken full advantage of ballot harvesting” and “we cannot continue to lose the voter turnout battle.”
He also assured supporters he was “not done yet” and would have more to announce next month.
In the meantime, Gluesenkamp Perez announced her staff appointments this week and wrote, “I’m glad Joe Kent accepted his loss, and I look forward to serving as Southwest Washington’s independent voice in Congress. Democracy is alive and well in our corner of the country.”
Overall, the requested machine recount of the full 3rd Congressional District, which was certified on Dec. 22, resulted in a 14-vote change to the total, stated a news release from the Office of the Secretary of State.
The addition of nine votes for Gluesenkamp Perez and five votes for Kent adjusted the margin of victory from 2,629 votes to 2,633 votes. Seven counties took part in the recount, which amended the vote totals in Clark County by 10 votes, Cowlitz County by two votes, and Skamania and Thurston counties by one vote each.
