After losing the seat to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the 2022 general election, the CCRP governing party is rallying its support around one candidate for the 2024 race
Ken Vance, editor
Clark County Today
The Clark County Republican Party (CCRP) is attempting to implement a different strategy for the 2024 Third Congressional District race for a position in the U.S. House of Representatives.
After losing the seat to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the 2022 general election, the CCRP governing party is rallying its support around one candidate for the 2024 race.
“The governing body of the Clark County Republican Party made a strong statement tonight that they support Joe Kent early on for Congress in our 3rd Congressional District,’’ CCRP Chairman Matthew Bumala wrote to Clark County Today in an email Thursday. “The choice to endorse Kent this early was massively supported with nearly 84% of the votes. Only 2/3 of the Precinct Committee Officers needed to vote in approval for this endorsement to be passed.’’
After surviving a hotly contested 2022 primary election season, which included fellow Republicans Heidi St. John and former state Rep. Vicki Kraft, Kent was defeated by Perez in the 2022 general election by just more than 2,600 votes. In December, Kent officially announced that he would seek the seat in 2024.
“This speaks volumes in comparison to the last election cycle which had several Republican candidates in the race going into the primaries without any of them having the endorsement from the County Party,’’ Bumala wrote, referring to the CCRP strategy. “In Washington State, we have a jungle primary. The divided vote hurt us unnecessarily and gave little runway time for people to rally behind Kent going into the general election. Had our party rallied behind him earlier, we’d see a different Congressional Representative in D.C. right now.’’
Prior to the 2022 election, the Third Congressional District was represented by Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, who held the seat since 2010. Herrera Beutler lost support among Republicans in the district when she was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump in January 2021. One month after Herrera Beutler voted for Trump’s impeachment, the CCRP voted to censure the congresswoman.
“The hopes of those that voted for the endorsement are that we can unite behind one candidate now and avoid the division and infighting over different candidates,’’ Bumala told Clark County Today. “We can’t replay what we did to ourselves last election cycle. We are in it to win. Tonight was a big proclamation toward that.”
Republican Leslie Lewallen, a member of the Camas City Council, recently announced her bid for the Third Congressional District seat.
Bumala was elected as chairman of the CCRP on Dec. 10, 2022.
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It’s important to note that this vote, which I support, is not a statement against anyone who may have filed. It simply says that the Clark County Republican elected Precinct Officers are leading the way toward a win in 2024 to take back our district. Kent has the endorsements; the traction and a huge head start over any other candidate. He has put in the work, massive amounts of it. Cowlitz also recently endorsed Kent for the very reasons Clark Chairman Matt Bumala stated. All of our time, volunteer efforts and money must go against Perez, not fighting on our own turf.
According to a letter to the editor published at Clark County Today, a partial recount of votes in the November 2022 election in Clark County in the 3rd Congressional district was performed, where it appears that only 2,404 ballots out of 207,112 ballots were recounted. It was reported in this letter that this small sample recount revealed 14 ballot errors in which 14 votes were not counted by the voting system.
Yet the county election department had already performed their own routine internal audit, a Risk Limiting Audit, which takes just 600 ballots – and runs them through the same machine and hand-counting process used in the official count. The limited county audit of only 600 ballots did not detect the errors that came up in the partial recount.
Citizens have requested a full independent forensic audit of the Clark County voting system, a reasonable request.
No, No, No!!! No way this guy can win against any democrat.
GOP policies are geared towards denying women rights and putting every American at risk of being shot.
Washington state has got it right every year they vote for sensible and normal people to ensure Americans retain their healthcare rights, maintain a separation between church and state, ensure people of all races and genders have equal freedoms and now they will get rid of those child-killing AR15’s!!! Hallelujah!!!
John Lopez, You Democrats are supporting Men and Boys competing in Woman and Girl Sports and using their rest rooms, dressing rooms and showers, talk about denying woman rights, that is what your Democrat party is all about!!! Oh and You Democrats support killing unborn babies of which about 50% are female!!! Your Democrat party is the KKK and and supported Jim Crow!!! Oh there is no separation of Church and State in our Constitution or Decoration Of Independence!!! Our 1st Amendment was to protect the Church from the Government!!! Our 2nd amendment is also protected in our Constitution!!! You Democrats are also Defunding our police and then who will protect our Citizens if we do not have law enforcement??? You Democrats removed prayer and God’s 10 Commandments from Public schools in 1963 and you wonder why we have been having school shootings!!! Put GOD and his 10 Commandments back in our Schools and secure our Schools and have armed security officers protecting our Children, just like our Court Houses are protected!!! Because of Biden and his Democrat buddies we have an open Southern border and the last two years over 100,000 per year including Children were killed by Fentanyl alone!!! How many more Terrorists, Drug Cartels and MS-13 members do you want in our beloved America??? Oh, how many more human babies do you want to die from abortion in our America??? GOD willing we will take back our beloved America in 2024 with President Trump and others like Joe Kent for Congress!!!
This, right here, is why we continue to lose elections.
We need to regroup and focus on core conservative principles: right sizing the government, protecting freedoms.
The longer we spend going after whatever we think is “woke” or being crybabies about “lost” elections means continuing to lose.
Spinning up more government to intrude in other people’s personal lives is also highly problematic as those same government apparatuses need $ and can be turned on us in the future. Even if we completely disagree with someone’s life choices we should be defending their ability to do what they want without government intrusion on principle!
Also, Wendy, thanks for the helpful background.
Go away Kent, we need an adult with integrity.
Wow, you think you know how all democrats think and believe? Sounds like you have all the answers. You care more about gun rights than all the children slaughtered in schools, innocent people killed in parks, neighborhoods and other public places, but a woman doesn’t have the right to make decisions about her own health. I haven’t seen any surveys on the religious belief of shooters but it is interesting many of the mass shootings are in RED States. Please show the source of some of your outlandish rantings. What a hypocrite!
It is very sad that our Citizens still remain, completely BLINDED and stymied, by the same couple of OLD and protested ideologies for years with no change. To make Abortions and AR-15’s the same old beaten-to-death subjects, just shows how little we have grown as a nation, when these two issues are FAR AWAY from the really important reasons we are experiencing a TOTAL breakdown of our societies MORAL Values! In fact it is scary. Conservative Values is what Our Constitituion was built, NOT the degradation of our children and family morals as is being presented in our local societal forums today! Its really sad to see what you think is important. Really sad. I was a Democrat my whole life, but what I have seen, only got worse by Liberals this past 10 years, I am well aware which way the mud is flowing. And its ALL Down Hill!
LOL, morals.
The problem with morals is that anyone can say anything and say it’s for reasons of morals. Even the seemingly obvious ones (though shalt not kill) have reasonable exceptions (self defense, capital punishment, etc.)
How about we start with you stay out of my business and I’ll stay out of yours!
…”Morals”…not the ditch I plan on dying in.
I agree with Chair Bumela that the governing body made a “strong statement”, but I disagree with his interpretation of what that was. The CCRP has a 235 person voting membership, I have been one of those officers for many terms. 71 of those members voted in support
of a year early vote to endorse Joe Kent as one of the Republican candidates to choose from in Aug 2024. Many more Republican candidates will announce and some may seek to be recognized or endorsed as well, as is their free right. The party’s governing policy allows for that; their stated very purpose for being an organization supports that as well.
Back to those numbers, Precinct Commitee Officers read the agenda and saw Joe Kent was set to be endorsed. One third of those that voted said ‘no,not yet’, but these officers aligned with the 70% of the CCRP that passively abstained by not voting while present or by not showing up to the meeting. 164 Officers out of 235.
Matt Bumala, one of Mr Kent’s campaign team since Feb. 2021, crows, “tonight was a big proclamation.. “. Yes, Chairman, it was.
Joe Kent is quoted saying the following day that this major league endorsment (as Lars Larson christened it during their interview), ” this shows the unity of the Republican Party.”
I don’t know in what world the support of 71 officers, representating a mere 30% of the Clark County GOP governing body, screams unity.
Wendy Rush is right. Support from 30% of the governing body is not a ringing endorsement.
There is a full year before the filing deadline for the race and the need to “unite right now, today”, is overstated. In the last election, it was expected incumbent Jaime Herrera Beutler would likely occupy one of the two spots in the primary unless a challenger had enough support to oust her; and a Democrat, the other. In 2024 the incumbent Democrat will occupy one, but the 2nd spot is wide open.
Joe Kent did beat Herrera Beutler, but failed to convince voters in the general election. He lost 9% of Republican Tiffany Smiley’s voters, while Marie Gluesenkamp Perez outperformed Patty Murray at about the same rate. It’s hard to see why we should expect a different result next time.
No need to SEE anything this early and again, nothing is more clear to me, an Ex-Democrat who thought that party represented FREEDOM! UNfortunately, that is no longer an asset. There is a BIG RED LINE today, between what used to mean: “Liberalism”, and what today means:
ANYONE who cannot SEE the destruction and radicalisms of todays DIM Party needs a full brain transplant!”
Kent will not defeat Ms. Glusenkamp-Perez; his background is too questionable. I will vote for Ms. Lewallen.
Now THAT is some real fine, Home-Grown-Jumping in with ALL-Fours! The campaign hasnt even begun, but you are ready to VOTE? Right there. Is my case in point!
If Joe Kent is the best you can do, the GOP Is doomed in Clark County. There are many new comers here that are changing the political demographics and some of us who just tired of the hate and radical views and will only support more moderate candidates. It is very troubling how a few destroyed Herrera Buhtler, who was trying to do her job. Fortunately, we got a rising star, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez a moderate democrat and she is doing a fabulous job. She listens to the people and isn’t trying to promote radical views!
Reality, in this county, is that the seat is lost to the Democrats. Clark is turning blue at an alarming rate.
The Clark County Republican Party is so severely fractured that has it has become irrelevant.
New leadership should be focusing on unification, marketing party involvement, increasing awareness of party values and platform and building trust in the party.
This endorsement was an “out of the norm” move that will only further fracture the party and further diminish the influence it once had..