Braun seeks to retake a key Republican seat from incumbent Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in 2026 election
Cade Barker
for The Chronicle
Washington state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, officially kicked off his campaign with a breakfast fundraising event at the Vancouver Hilton during the morning of Thursday (Nov. 20).
Braun, Washington state senator for the 20th Legislative District and Senate Republican Leader, previously announced his candidacy to represent Washington’s Third Congressional District. From 2011 into 2023, Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, of Battle Ground, held the seat. Since 2023, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, has served in Congress after overcoming two separate challenges from Republican Joe Kent.
Braun seeks to return the congressional seat to the Republican Party.
At his Vancouver campaign kickoff event, numerous local politicians were in attendance. Many military veterans, like Braun himself, and his early campaign supporters also attended the breakfast. Braun, a 31-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, highlighted his experience as well as the importance of his congressional race.
“Has there ever been a time when who we send to D.C. matters more to your family and the future of our country?” Braun asked his supporters in attendance. “I’m John Braun. I’m a veteran. I’m a small business owner. I’m a citizen legislator. More importantly, I’m a proud father of four. I’m a husband, and I’m ready to go to Washington to fight for you, your family and our country’s future.”
Braun added that current politicians in Congress are playing the same game time after time, spending money the country doesn’t have and passing the burden and consequences down to the next generations.
Braun also told his supporters that his opponent, Gluesenkamp Perez, has a knack for press releases.
“She’s pretty good at sending out a press release, and whether she’s announcing the Congressional High School Art Competition or introducing her new bill to honor the national electrical lineman — and don’t get me wrong, I like art and I certainly like linemen — and she gets an ‘A’ when it comes to publicity,” Braun said. “But on the big issues, the issues that matter to your family and the American’s future, she’s either absent or she’s just wrong. She voted to raise taxes, and families are already struggling. She voted to keep parents in the dark about what’s happening in our schools. She voted against strengthening our military and our border security and taking us back to Biden-era levels. That’s not leadership. It’s not leadership. That’s surrender. And for all those press releases, she gets an ‘A’ on, she gets an ‘F’ when it comes to actual accomplishments.”
In the first three months since announcing his plan to run for the seat, Braun has raised over half a million dollars. However, at the same time at the end of October, Gluesenkamp Perez already held a $1.5 million advantage.
According to previous reporting by The Chronicle, the race is widely expected to be one of the most expensive congressional races in the country as Republicans will seek to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives and flip the seat held by Gluesenkamp Perez. Despite Gluesenkamp Perez earning the seat twice, the Third Congressional District of Washington has voted for President Donald Trump in each of his three races for the presidency.
“I’ve served before in uniform and in the state Legislature,” Braun said. “I’ve stood for balanced budgets, for fiscal responsibility, for real solutions. And I want to be clear. I’m running for Congress not to add to the political noise in Washington, D.C., but to cut through it.”
Braun told his supporters the reason he is running for the federal seat is clear to him.
“We are at a crossroads for our country, for our state,” he said. “Families are being crushed by inflation, you know. The administration does a good job of closing the borders. We have a lot of work to do to keep them closed. Our schools are failing to teach the basics while pushing radical agendas. And, in too many communities, crime is outpacing justice.”
Braun said the 43-day federal government shutdown showed exactly what is broken in current American politics.
“Democratic leaders who initiated had no clear path to getting the policies they were demanding, and they knew it,” he said. “But the partisan fury on their side was so intense that they shut the government down anyway, and they achieved absolutely nothing. They ended exactly right back where they started. But during those 43 days, they caused real harm to the people they’re supposed to serve. Those who wanted help with their Social Security. Those who wanted to get on flights. Those who just want to go to work and collect a paycheck.”
Braun added that Gluesenkamp Perez “played true to form” during the shutdown.
“As soon as the whole fiasco began, she was everywhere, op-eds, interviews, media hits, blaming everyone but herself and declaring, ‘I could not in good conscience vote to shut down the government,’” Braun told his supporters. “What she neglected to tell you is that she didn’t vote at all. She was in D.C. She was in the chamber. She’s physically present, but she chose to play political games instead of doing her job.”
Gluesenkamp Perez has said she backed the Republican bill to avert a government shutdown. In an article by Jerry Cornfield of The Washington State Standard, video shows that she tried to vote, but was too late.
“The effort captured on video shows her sprinting to the podium in front of the dais, waving to get the attention of the presiding officer to cast her vote. The voting period had ended,” Cornfield’s article stated.
Braun continued to criticize Gluesenkamp Perez by saying she is not there for her constituents, “But when it comes to actually doing the work, the standing up when it matters, she’s not there for us. I believe in a better way,” Braun said. “I believe in lower taxes and living within our means. I believe in American energy, so we can lower your gas bill, not rely on our foreign adversaries. I believe in parental rights. So you, not bureaucrats, decide what’s best for your child. I believe in secure borders and legal, not illegal immigration. I believe in supporting law enforcement, not defunding them. But most of all, I believe in you. I believe in the strength of small towns, of small businesses, of strong families. I believe in the values that built this country: hard work, faith, service, responsibility. Those aren’t just slogans to me. That’s how I live my life, and I know it’s how you live your life.”
This report was first published by The Chronicle.
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