Donald Trump-endorsed MAGA candidates are seeking revenge in this month’s primary elections.
Trump-endorsed Jerrod Sessler is seeking to unseat GOP Representative Dan Newhouse in Washington’s 4th congressional district. Newhouse is one of only two Republican congressmen left who voted to impeach Trump.
And in Washington’s 3rd District, Trump-backed candidate Joe Kent is hoping to win the GOP nomination so that he can once again face off against Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the Democrat who beat him in an upset two years ago.
Washington has a nonpartisan primary system in which all candidates appear on the same ballot regardless of party, and the top two finishers in the race advance to the general election.
Washington’s 4th Congressional District
The 4th congressional district is a large area of central Washington, where Newhouse and Sessler are appearing on the ballot alongside Republican Tiffany Smiley, a former nurse. Trump also endorsed Smiley in a Truth Social post late on Saturday, calling her a “tremendous America First Candidate.”
Smiley has criticized Newhouse’s stance on Trump after he became one of 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
At the time, Newhouse argued that Trump’s actions were a violation of his oath to uphold the Constitution. By encouraging the attack on the legislative branch, Trump undermined the democratic process and the rule of law, he said.
He is now one of only two GOP congressmen remaining in the House after the 2022 midterms, along with Representative David Valadao.
“If Dan Newhouse stays in, who’s to say he’s not going to impeach Trump again?” Smiley previously said of Newhouse. She added later: “It almost feels delusional, a little bit. Like, ‘How are you going to go back to D.C. and think that you will have the ear of the President?'”
Sessler has also labeled Newhouse an “impeacher” and has run on him not being loyal to Trump. Newhouse “betrayed his voters by joining Democrats to impeach President Trump in 2021,” Sessler wrote, according to materials posted on his campaign website.
In an interview with the Spokesman Review, Newhouse acknowledged many voters in the district were upset by his impeachment vote but said he believes many have moved on.
“The reaction from many folks is that they may not agree with me on that one particular vote, but they recognize that they do agree with me on so many other things and so they continue to support me,” Newhouse said.
“I’ve been focusing as much as I can on the work in front of me, the things that are important to people,” he said. “And a lot of people recognize that that’s where we should be. Instead of living a year-and-a-half ago, we should be focused on what’s going on right now and how do we address those things that concern everybody, like inflation, like high prices of gas and food.”
Newhouse has raised $1.6 million, outpacing Smiley and Sessler combined.
Washington’s 3rd District:
Meanwhile, in Washington’s 3rd District, which encompasses the southernmost portion of Western Washington, Trump-endorsed Joe Kent is looking to unseat Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in what appears to be a tightly contested race.
Two years ago, Perez achieved a significant upset by winning a congressional seat against Kent in a district that hadn’t voted Democratic in over a decade. Now, with Trump’s endorsement once more, Kent is attempting to reclaim the seat in Washington’s southwest corner. However, he faces formidable competition from Perez.
A Northwest Progressive Institute poll in June found that Perez and Kent are neck and neck among nearly 650 likely voters who live in the district, with Kent at 46 percent to Perez’s 45.
In Congress, Perez has occasionally broken ranks with fellow Democrats on high-profile issues. Last year, she sided with Republicans to repeal President Joe Biden‘s plan to cancel student debt for 43 million Americans, advocating that any such aid for college graduates should be matched “dollar-for-dollar” with investments in career and technical education for trades workers.
Recently, she was one of six House Democrats who joined Republicans in a vote condemning Vice President Kamala Harris for the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border. Additionally, she publicly called for Biden to end his reelection campaign following a disastrous debate performance and has declined to endorse Harris.
However, she has also sided with those in her party on many issues, including abortion access and climate change policies. In turn, Republicans have accused Perez of pretending to be a moderate.
“Marie Gluesenkamp Perez campaigned as a moderate and then voted directly against the needs of Washingtonians. She’s misrepresenting who she is and what her goals are in Washington which is to bring ANTIFA into the moderate wing of the Democrat party,” said GOP congressional candidate Leslie Lewallen of the same district in a recent statement. “We need a leader who is pro-small business, pro-parent voice in schools and pro-safety in our communities. I am proud to say that my record at the Camas City Council reflects those ideals.”
