U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Vancouver Saturday to help raise money for fellow Republican Joe Kent’s campaign to represent the 3rd Congressional District.
For a $1,000 suggested donation, Kent supporters gained entry to a noon reception with Johnson at El Gaucho at The Waterfront Vancouver.
Kent is running to unseat U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, who narrowly defeated Kent in 2022. A rematch between Perez and Kent has long been expected.
The race has garnered national attention because the seat could decide control of the U.S. House, where Republicans currently hold a slim 219-213 majority. The 3rd Congressional District is one of five competitive Pacific Northwest races that could tip the scales in one party’s favor.
“We’re very bullish about November,” Johnson said. “The road to the majority for the House Republicans runs through this state, and this district is an important one.”
Johnson praised Kent’s military service and resume. Kent is a Green Beret veteran who deployed 11 times before working as a CIA officer. He also served as a foreign affairs advisor in the Trump administration. Kent has received Trump’s endorsement.
“This guy is made for the job. He is a serious person for serious times,” Johnson said. “He almost won this race last time, and we really believe he can get it done this time.”
Johnson argued the U.S. is “facing the most dangerous time as a nation since at least World War II.”
“We have all the adversaries of the country that have been empowered because of Biden-Harris policies,” he said. “This is the perfect time for a guy like Joe Kent to come to Congress. … I don’t know anybody in Congress serving now or in recent memory who’s had 11 deployments. I mean, he’s overqualified to be there, and I’m so grateful he wants to do it.”
He added that Republicans are committed to helping Kent win the seat.
“I’ve been on the Hill and I’ve been around the country, and Joe is one of the candidates that we talk about no matter where I am, because this is one of the top five races in the country,” he said. “I’m bringing all the assistance I can. My presence here shows how important this is to us.”
The biggest difference between now and 2022 is Perez’s voting record, Johnson said.
“It is one of the worst in all of Congress,” he said. “(Kent) is a reasonable governing conservative who will fix the problems, and Gluesenkamp Perez has created those problems.”
Johnson added that Perez is “against the values of this district and the American people.”
“She’s been supportive of antifa and supportive of an open border,” he said. “Virtually everything that ails the country, she has assisted with.”
Perez posted about Johnson’s visit on social media Thursday.
“Speaker Johnson is coming here on Saturday to raise money for my white nationalist opponent Joe Kent. Did David Duke give him the idea?” she wrote.
She encouraged voters to attend Squirrel Fest in Longview instead.
“Squirrel Fest is the nuttiest event in the Northwest, but you’ll only find the good kind of nuts there,” she wrote.
Kent said that Johnson’s visit showed “how united the Republican Party is to flip this seat.”
He added that he is focused on “being energy independent and a net exporter of energy, sealing off the border, stopping the flow of fentanyl and deporting the people that have come into our country illegally.”
