The results of Tuesday’s primary election indicate that, of Washington’s 10 congressional districts, only one can still be called a swing district.
Unless there is some unimaginable upheaval, Eastern Washington’s 4th and 5th districts will stay safely in the hands of the Republican Party, while seven others will remain easy wins for the Democrats. That includes the 8th District that traverses the Cascade Mountains from Issaquah to Chelan County, which was once expected to be up for grabs by candidates from either party but now looks like fairly safe territory for the Democratic incumbent, Rep. Kim Schrier, who won 54% of the primary vote.
The outlier is the 3rd District in the southwest corner of the state, where the Democratic incumbent Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and her Republican challenger, State Sen. John Braun, were close to a tie as votes were being counted.
The challenge Gluesenkamp Perez faces is that, for once, her Republican opponent is not a right-wing MAGA militant who scares off independent voters. Braun is a traditional fiscal conservative who, given his many years as minority leader in the state Senate, brings a lot of political experience and clout to the race.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson showed up in the district Wednesday to campaign for Braun. Johnson knows the 3rd District race offers Republicans one of the few opportunities to flip a congressional seat in a year when Democrats are favored to take control of the House of Representatives. Where Johnson goes, funding will follow, so we can expect massive amounts of money to be spent by the national GOP, conservative political action committees and probably a few billionaires to boost Braun and target Gluesenkamp Perez.
If the tactic of those outside spenders is to portray the incumbent as a dangerous left winger, though, they may be wasting their money. By now, if people in the district know anything about Gluesenkamp Perez, it is that she is a true maverick who has gained notoriety by straying from the Democratic Party line and occasionally voting with Republicans.
That independence is the reason she faced a progressive opponent in the primary, Brent Hennrich, who took 16% of the vote on Tuesday and now refuses to support her in the general election.
“I want her out of office,” Hennrich said the day after his election loss. “Just because you’re not a fascist doesn’t mean you’re a Democrat.”
Gluesenkamp Perez has to hope that most of the folks who voted for Hennrich do not feel the same as their candidate, otherwise, she will have more to worry about than the Republican war chest.
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