Democrat Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has won a second term in the U.S. House of Representatives in the closely watched 3rd Congressional District race.
Her lead over Republican challenger Joe Kent continues to grow fractionally with each new batch of election results released.
According to Thursday evening returns posted by the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, Perez has 181,405 votes or 51.55 percent to Kent’s 169,155 votes or 48.07 percent — a difference of 12,250 votes.
The 3rd district includes Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania, Pacific, Wahkiakum and Lewis counties, along with a sliver of Thurston County.
In Clark County, the district’s most populous county, Perez had garnered 56.01 percent to Kent’s 43.61 percent of ballots cast.
According to the Clark County Elections Office’s 5 p.m. Thursday ballot count, 236,045 ballots have been counted with an estimated 40,000 outstanding.
Perez beat Kent for the same seat in Congress in 2022 with a slimmer margin of around 2,000 votes.
In other elections news:
- Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, is more than a thousand votes ahead of Democrat challenger Marla Keethler in the race for the 17th District Senate seat in the Washington Legislature. The seat has been held by Vancouver Republican Lynda Wilson, who is retiring. Harris stands at 50.75 percent or 35,873 votes to Keethler’s 49.12 percent or 34,724 votes,
- Democrat Terri Niles trails Republican David Stuebe by 147 votes in the 17th District, Position 2, House race. Stuebe had 50.03 percent or 35,075 votes, with Niles at 49.82 percent or 34,928 votes.
- The 18th District Senate race is even tighter than the 17th District. Democrat Adrian Cortes has maintained a slight lead over Republican Brad Benton since election night. Cortes has 50.14 percent or 37,622 votes to Benton’s 49.67 or 37,268 votes — a 354 vote difference.
- In the 18th District, Position 2, race John Ley is maintaining a lead over Democrat John Zingale. Ley, a Republican, has 50.79 percent or 37,965 votes to Zingale’s 49.05 percent or 36,666 votes.
- In the Clark County Council District 4 race, Joe Zimmerman has a slight lead over Matt Little. Zimmerman has 50.25 percent or 19,872 votes, with Little trailing at 49.03 percent or 19,388 votes.
- Vancouver’s Prop 4, which would fund more police officers and support staff, is failing with 34,936 or 51.5 percent of Vancouver voters saying no to 32,926 or 48.5 percent of yes votes.
- Former 3rd District Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler has lost her bid for the Commissioner of Public Lands to Democrat Dave Upthegrove. Herrera Beutler, a Republican, sits at 46.78 percent or 1,449,770 votes to Upthegrove’s 53.0 percent or 1,642,537 votes.
In Washington, a machine recount is required when the difference between the top two candidates in an election is less than 2,000 votes and less than ½ of 1 percent of the total number of votes cast for both candidates. A manual recount is required when the difference between the top two candidates is less than 150 votes and less than 1/4 of 1% of the total votes cast for both candidates.
