Think Out Loud

Washington’s 3rd Congressional District debate: Jaime Herrera Beutler, Joe Kent and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

By Sheraz Sadiq (OPB)
July 26, 2022 1:03 a.m. Updated: Aug. 3, 2022 7:32 p.m.

Broadcast: Wednesday, July 27

00:00
 / 
31:35

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Battle Ground) is running for re-election in a competitive primary being held next Tuesday in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District. She is one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Under the state’s open primary system, the top two vote getters will advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. Joining us for a debate are Rep. Herrera Beutler and two of her primary challengers. Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez lives in unincorporated Skamania County and owns an auto repair shop with her husband. Republican Joe Kent lives in Yacolt, in Clark County, and is a retired U.S. Army Green Beret who is being endorsed by former President Trump.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

Note: The following transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud, I’m Dave Miller. We turn now to the primary for Washington’s third congressional district. It is a race that has gotten national attention given that the incumbent, six term Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler from Battleground was one of only 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the attack on the Capitol. Half a dozen Washington Republicans lined up to try to unseat her in the primary. Washington, as you might remember, has an open primary system. It means that the top two vote getters in August regardless of party, will go on to the general election. We invited four of the most prominent candidates in the field to join us and three of them said, ‘yes.’ Jaime Herrera Beutler is one of them, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat who lives in unincorporated Skamania County and owns an auto repair shop in Portland with her husband, and Republican Joe Kent lives in Yacolt, in Clark County. He is a retired US Army Green Beret who served eleven combat tours and has been endorsed by former President Trump. I should note that Republican Heidi St. John declined our invitation to participate. Joe Kent, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Jaime Herrera Beutler, welcome to Think Out Loud.

All: Hi there. Thank you.

Miller: Thank you, all three of you, for joining us. I want to give each of you just about a minute to introduce yourselves. We randomly selected an order before the show and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, you’ll go first, followed by Jamie Herrera Beutler and then Joe Kent, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, The floor is yours.

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez: Thank you so much Dave for having us here. I want to be really clear in this race that there are profound differences between me and every other candidate. I am a small business owner, like you said, I own an auto repair and a machine shop with my husband. I’m also actually a graduate of Reed College. I have a degree in economics from there. I am the only candidate in this race that will protect a woman’s right to choose. The federal government is working to or to criminalize a woman’s right to choose. I am the only candidate in this race that understands what’s really killing small businesses in America today. I am the only woman here who’s going to protect Social Security, to protect the American Affordable Care Act and build a greener economy and address climate change. These are critical issues and we need an advocate for them.

Miller: Jamie Herrera Beutler, You have one minute.

Jamie Herrera Beutler: I think that as someone who grew up here, this is my home, I’m raising my family in this region. I know what makes this region special and we’ve had a tough few years. Right now, we’re grappling with an affordability crisis, basically for everybody – record high gas prices, spiking grocery prices, product shortages. Basically, you don’t even know if you can find formula for your infant. And that’s untenable. It’s making life unaffordable. So my number one priority is making sure that we halt this inflation, which is why I’ve opposed trillions in wasteful spending that contribute to spike in gas prices. And I’m working to get more goods on our shelves and lower gas prices. I’ve never voted to raise taxes and I won’t. And I’m right now, one of the things that I think is most important is that we stop overspending, which is how we preserve Social Security, by the way. Senior citizens have spent their whole lives paying into this trust fund and they need those benefits that they were promised. Then the other issue I think is incredibly important in Southwest Washington is community safety. Crime is on the rise and Portland is setting records for homicides and we can’t ignore it. I am the only candidate in this race who has been endorsed by the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs because I’ve worked hard in Congress to successfully bring funds and tools to our local police forces.

Miller: Let me stop you there just because you have many more times to talk, but it’s been a little bit over a minute and I want to try my best to keep all of you on time. Joe Kent, your time.

Joe Kent: Absolutely. Thanks for having us. Thanks for hosting this. I fought for this country for a little over 20 years at eleven combat deployments and what I saw in that time was that our ruling class, Republicans and Democrats had no qualms about sending our best and brightest off to go fight overseas in wars that we do not need. My opponent, Jaime Herrera Beutler has voted for these wars, voted to leave us engaged in these entanglements because she is bought and paid for by corporate special interest groups. She’s done nothing as inflation has choked the people of Southwest Washington and of this country. She voted to raise the debt ceiling. She’s voted for every single omnibus bill that’s been put in front of her. Law and order is absolutely eroding in our country and Jamie voted to stop construction of our southern border wall when we had a chance to build it. She has voted to defund the police. She has voted to not stop antifa from ravaging our district. She has worked to deprive us of our Second Amendment rights by supporting red flag years and red flag laws and worst of all, she’s refused to come back to the district and stand before the people for over six years and do an in-person Town Hall. I’ve done over 220 since I began my run for this seat because I want to restore the peoples’ voice back to Washington DC, where it belongs, and get rid of this corrupt uni-party establishment.

Miller: Joe Kent. What do you see as the most urgent issue facing this country, right now? And how would you approach it specifically, in Congress?

Joe Kent: Inflation. The Biden Administration with their spending packages, and then Joe Biden’s energy policies, of killing off the Keystone XL, killing off exploratory drilling is absolutely destroying our country. Right now, people can barely afford to put gas in their tank and that’s driven the cost of all goods up. So we have to start playing hardball with the Biden Administration. When we take power in 2023, we have to say very plainly to the Biden Administration, but they will reverse all of their day one policies, make no mistake. This isn’t the Putin price hike or anything like that. We were energy independent just eighteen months ago and the economy was affordable to everyone. So we have to say very plainly to the Biden Administration that they will reverse all their day one energy policies or we will withhold the federal budget. This power politics is the only thing that the progressive left understands. People like Jaime Herrera Beutler are just not fit for this fight because they’re part of the establishment that benefits from the managed decline of our country.

Miller: Jaime Herrera Beutler, what do you see as the most urgent issue facing this country? And how would you approach it if you are re-elected?

Jaime Herrera Beutler: Well, I definitely think that inflation is a big part of that. I helped write legislation that was signed into law that reduced the average tax burden for folks in Southwest Washington by about $3,000. And right now because of inflation, the average family in Southwest Washington is going to be spending $5,200 more without an increase in pay, if we don’t do anything – which is part of the reason I have supported the American Energy Independence from Russia Act, which is going to encourage the production of domestic energy, which is going to lower gas prices and make us less reliant on these dangerous countries and part of it too, I think I’m sponsoring legislation on the Ocean Shipping Reform Act and the Drive Safe Act. These are going to help us with goods and supplies and supply chains, but we also have to stop overspending. You know, that’s one of the reasons I opposed this Biden stimulus bill. California, for instance, got $43 billion out of that bill – the same year that it had a $31 billion surplus. We cannot spend our way out of an inflation crisis. And I’ll stop this reckless spending and gas, grocery and energy prices under control.

Miller: Marie Gluesankamp Perez, what do you see as the most urgent issue?

Marie Gluesankamp Perez: I run an Auto Shop and so I am seeing seniors living out of their cars. I am seeing firsthand people not driving because they can’t afford to. But I think the record is clear. Listen, Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. This Congress has done nothing to invest substantively in increasing our energy independence, for this train has been pulling into the station since Carter and Jimmy Carter called this, and we have got to turn the ship around and you know, it’s not just about gas. Our Congresswoman voted against ensuring that we had better access to infant formula. I’m the one here with an infant. This hits very close to home. We have eviscerated American manufacturing; 2.5 years into this pandemic, we still have no domestic production of medical grade masks. And that is a huge problem. We are trading with people that do not have our best interests at heart.

Miller: You’ve all mentioned gas and gas prices. I’m curious. First, Jaime Herrera Beutler, where climate change ranks on your list of legislative priorities or concerns?

Herrera Beutler: It’s right up there and part of it is because it does play a role in exactly what we’re talking about with regard to the cost to the consumer. You know, I’ve led efforts to eliminate the fire borrowing in Congress, which basically means that the Forest Service doesn’t do any work on its forests and as they start to burn the money for management goes into fire borrowing. So we put money in place to combat those fires. But the most important thing we need to do is make our forests resilient. And I’ve worked on legislation to make sure that we’re going to end the years of neglect, and make sure that our trees are both protected, but the economies, the small rural areas that depend on them, Skamania is a great example. It’s almost 97% government owned, which means they don’t have enough money to produce tax receipts for Schools and Fire and Police – that’s ridiculous, when fire hits and everything burns. We can protect that forest, pass it on, and still provide economy for folks locally. I also believe we have to do more in the renewable space. I have legislation that was signed into law in 2020 to bolster the use of renewable energies and in addition to carbon capture. Those are things I worked on and have had signed into law. But I think it’s important that my opponent recognizes, I’ve never heard her say that she would oppose a cap and trade law. I have not heard her say that she would support our dam system. Our hydro system is carbonless and it is the only thing that’s propping up what’s left of the manufacturing in Southwest Washington. And Democrats from Joe Biden, Jay Inslee, are talking about what they can do to rip those dams out. That would drive everybody’s energy prices through the roof, not to mention leave us with an unreliable grid… I’d sponsor legislation to oppose that…

[Voices overlap]

Miller: Well, let me give her a chance to say whatever she’d like about that. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, where does climate change rank on your list of priorities? And you can also respond to anything Jaime Herrera Beutler said about your positions.

Gluesenkamp Perez: This is an existential crisis. People like me who live in Skamania County- my house almost burned down in the Eagle Creek fire when it jumped the river. Climate change is here. This is not just weather. So we have got to take swift action and there are platitudes about this, but the reality is we’ve got to expand the definition of what a green job is. A green job is electricians wiring a heat pump into your house. It’s mechanics stopping your car from leaking oil into the river, and because she brought up hydro-electric, that is the reality, 90% of our renewable energy in Washington State comes from dams. That is a critical piece of our infrastructure. This is a really tenuous time in this economy to be taking renewables out of the equation.

Miller: Just briefly, do you support the ideas behind or even the policies in the Green New Deal, a massive reorganization of our country’s economy to decarbonize the economy?

Gluesenkamp Perez: Yeah. You know, that is a, I would say that’s a policy-lite policy, Right? I mean, we have got…

Miller: A ‘policy-lite’ policy?

Gluesenkamp Perez: It’s high on ideals. And, as a business owner, I’m here to deliver pragmatic solutions like expanding the career and technical education that allows us to build these green jobs. We have got to start with the basics here.

Miller: Joe Kent, where does climate change rank on your list of priorities?

Kent: My number one priority is to get our economy back online. If we’re going to create green jobs here in America, then I’m fine with that. The current green agenda is really just being used as a stalking horse to make America weak. All these renewable sources that we’re talking about, it’s a payday for the Chinese Communist Party, electrical vehicles. All that green new deal nonsense, the sense that’s just essentially an assault on our sovereignty. What we have to do is get back to being energy independent and a net exporter of energy and to get our manufacturing base back online. The reason why we have been able to do that here in America is because of major global corporations that line the pockets of Representatives like Jaime Herrera Beutler. Koch Industries is absolutely gutting out our timber industry, our sawmills, shipping them overseas. That’s made us extremely vulnerable and reliant on people like the Chinese Communist Party. So our number one issue has to be getting to be energy independent and to be resource independent. Were blessed by divine province in this country. We are resource independent. We don’t need to be part of this globalized chain that we bear all the burdens for. So putting our country first and making sure we have all the resources here is something we need to focus on. If green energy-type programs develop from that, that’s all made in America, then I’m 100% fine with that. But the current climate agenda is nothing more than part of the ‘great reset,’ that is an assault on our sovereignty that Jaime Herrera Butler is lock, stock and barrel on board with.

Miller: It seems like, Joe Kent, you’re against the solutions that have been proposed in response to climate change. But I’m still trying to figure out if you’re if you’re concerned about climate change itself, setting aside your disagreements about how to deal with it. Do you see climate change itself, our heating planet, with more extreme events that could lead to gigantic refugee crises and war and famine, which you know, do you see it as an existential crisis or not?

Kent: I do not, no. I think that we could be going through a cycle right now where the world is getting a little bit hotter. These things go in cycles. I’m open to more data. But right now, most of the information that’s been provided so far has such a strong bias towards this green sector in this globalist...certain our power…

Miller: Ok, got it, got it. Let’s move on then. The House Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. They recently provided new testimony from top White House officials about the events of that day with a recent focus on Donald Trump’s inaction for more than three hours starting when he encouraged people to go to the Capitol and then they ransacked it, and eventually he released that video message saying, ‘go home, I love you…’

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, what have you taken away from the recent testimony?

Gluesenkamp Perez: Well that the goalpost has shifted so far to the right. I mean it is just insane to me that you know, now we have a Representative who, because she supports Democracy, is being projected as a champion of moderates. See, that is the floor.

Miller: I think you’re talking about Jaime Herrera Beutler’s decision to vote for Impeachment after the attack, and we can get to that. But I’m focused on what you have taken recently from these hearings?

Gluesenkamp Perez: One thing is that we are fortunate to live in a country with strong systems in place, but it is fragile and we have got to show up and vote for people who respect Democracy and respect really, the rule of law, not just you know, power when it pleases them. This is a knife’s edge for Democracy.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

Miller: Jaime Herrera Beutler, what have you taken from the House Committee’s revelations?

Herrera Beutler: Honestly, I haven’t been that surprised by what we’ve seen so far. A lot of the evidence has been heard or seen. But I think we need to make some changes to make sure our election system isn’t abused and our Democracy eroded, and I really feel like based on what I saw in the first hand accounts and the primary source I talked to and the thing that I lived through, I made the decision I needed to uphold my oath of office. But I also have been frustrated that there isn’t more conversation around, like, ‘How do we not repeat it, and what do we need to do to make sure that everybody, everything’s been looked at,’ and I am not sure that that’s happening. But having said that,...

Miller: But what would ‘making sure that we don’t repeat it,’ mean, and I guess I’m curious by what the ‘it’ is.

Herrera Beutler: The Senate has been talking about what they can do with regard to ‘free and secure elections,’ in a bipartisan way. I’d like to see that happen, to give security and a sense of that to people, in addition to the conversations that are happening around January sixth, I serve on the Appropriations Committee, I’m a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and on that Committee, I serve on the committee that oversees the capitol police, and then we’ve been working really hard to see what went wrong, what they knew, what they didn’t know, how we could have better prepared, how we could have had, and honestly, some of my challenge has been that because the January sixth hearings have been so politicized that some of these important details with regard to just the function of things like our capitol police and communications with defense and intelligence agencies. I can’t tell you for sure that those things have been fixed and that’s frustrating to me, just as a member of Congress who wants to see good government, honestly.

Miller: Joe Kent, what about you? What have you taken from the House Committee’s investigation?

Kent: That this committee is completely and totally out of control that’s being used to target the political opposition of those who are in power right now. So we have the January 6th Committee issuing subpoenas and arresting people that weren’t even present on the ground there, on January sixth. They’re not addressing the fact that many people have been detained and deprived of their constitutionally appointed rights since January sixth. And also, look, there’s real questions about what happened on January sixth. There was intelligence leading up to that day. There was a pipe bomb that day. The perimeter wasn’t expanded and we know that they have had the resources that they needed, but they weren’t deployed in a rapid fashion. There’s very obvious questions about why won’t all the footage be released. How come the government won’t answer key questions about how many undercover informants they had, what was their knowledge, what was their infiltration of the crowd? We know they have some degree of infiltration in the crowd because it’s been reported. And there’s also one person, Ray Epps, who’s actually seen on video directing people on multiple occasions to go into the Capitol and he has not been detained or charged. As a matter of fact, he’s only been thanked by the January 6th Committee. Meanwhile, people who had nothing to do with January sixth have been arrested have actually been thrown into shackles and are now under trial because they don’t support the narrative of the Biden Administration. So I think we’re seeing the weaponization of the Department of Justice, of Federal Law Enforcement and really of the Legislative Branch and I think it’s completely and totally out of control. And Jaime Herrera Beutler has voted for this. She voted for the establishment of the Committee. She voted to hold Steve Bannon…

Herrera Beutler: I’d like to jump in there. That’s inaccurate.

Kent: Please do…

Miller: Let me give you a chance to respond. Then we’ll move on.

Herrera Beutler: You want me to go on? I just on that point actually, I didn’t, and this is an important distinction, what I voted for was a Bipartisan Independent Commission, much in the style of the 9-11 Commission. I really always felt that whether or not they find things that are important is good, but for the American people to believe it, for it to hit both sides, for it to have credibility. It needed to be bipartisan, and it really needed to not be current members of Congress. I really felt like it would go, the truth would go further if they weren’t thinking exactly that, you know, my opponent makes the case, right? It was all these people are on a witch hunt, well, I would like to have taken that argument off the table completely. And what do you say when they’re unelected independent professionals who are doing this? So that’s what I voted for. Actually voted against the Partisan Select Committee…

Kent: But most Republicans did not vote…

Herrera Beutler: …because of exactly the point you just made.

Miller: Just for the Independent Commission that you, Congresswoman did vote for. I want to remind folks what we are talking right now about the primary for Washington’s third congressional district. Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler is the six term Incumbent. She is with us now, along with one Republican challenger, Joe Kent, and one Democratic challenger, the sole Democratic challenger in this crowded race, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Let’s turn to health care. Maria Gluesenkamp Perez, what would your legislative priorities be in terms of Health Care?

Gluesenkamp Perez: We are in a terrible spot in this country right now. Thank God for the Affordable Care Act. But small business owners like mine are on the chopping block. I mean, we are at a serious disadvantage. My husband and I applied for health insurance, we were quoted at $1,200 a month. Now, we are young and healthy people, we don’t have any pre-existing conditions beyond an entrepreneurial spirit. And that is just out of the reach of small business owners like me and I have seen so many people I know who run small businesses who decide not to have kids because they can’t afford the health care, who decide to sell their business or to just go work for a bigger corporation. And this is a deeply inequitable system.

Miller: That’s your diagnosis of the problem. What’s your suggestion for a solution?

Gluesenkamp Perez: We have got to expand access. It’s just that simple, increasing the age for Medicaid and decreasing the age for Medicare. I mean, we’ve got to start filling in these gaps.

Miller: Jaime Herrera Beutler, you voted numerous times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. You also voted against the Republican overhaul in 2017, the American Health Care Act. Millions of Americans are struggling with the price of healthcare. Still, what are you proposing to do to help them?

Herrera Beutler: First, I think we need to lower the cost of prescription drugs; help pass legislation to slash drug costs and put a cap on Seniors’ out-of-pocket expenses. I also recently helped pass the Affordable… bipartisan [inaudible] … co-chair of the Bipartisan Addiction Mental Health Task Force and I’m meeting legislation to help tackle mental health and related challenges which are exploding in this country. [Speech becomes increasingly garbled]

Miller: Congresswoman Butler. I don’t know if you’ve moved, but they were having some issues with your internet connection. So we’re going to see if we can improve your connection. I will go back to you so you can get a chance to fully answer this question. While we do that, and an apology to our listeners, but this is just the technology and we do what we can.

Joe Kent, what are your legislative priorities when it comes to Health Care?

Kent: Right now, the cost of healthcare is out of control because there’s no competition on the market. Thanks to programs like Obamacare, we need to introduce a lot more private sector solutions. There needs to be competition in the market.

Miller: I really, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Obamacare. It is the private market. It’s just, it’s a bunch of insurance companies that people can get access to from various state exchanges. How is that not the free market?

Kent: There’s not enough competition within those Healthcare Providers? There’s only a handful of healthcare providers that we have. And there’s that mandate that’s tied to employers having to provide their employees with healthcare. And it’s really created a monopoly within the healthcare industry. So I think we need a lot more privatization, competition in the market. I think individuals need the ability to have individual healthcare savings accounts that are tax free, high interest that can move across state lines from job to job with them. I think that would start to clear the way for more privatization within healthcare. I do think we need to do major reforms to the FDA to bring down the cost of pharmaceuticals. Right now Canada and Europe, they’re able to benefit from generic pharmaceuticals, but we have this high bar because of so many corporate lobbyists that exist within Washington DC that are, that are making it so there’s a high cost associated with pharmaceuticals. So if we deregulate that we’re able to take knockoff drugs from places like Europe from places like Canada and sell them as generics were going to bring down the price a lot more here in America. So overall deregulation and moving towards, people being able to have insurance companies compete for their their business, especially with younger folks and especially for folks with young healthy children

Miller: Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, you mentioned…

Herrera Beutler: I’m back. I really want to weigh in on this, this is an incredibly important issue. I just heard Joe Kent endorse my Safe Importation of Drugs from Canada and Mexico Act. So that’s great news. We need to lower the cost of prescription drugs and I think I got that part out that the prescription drug piece. I helped pass the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which is going to cut the cost of Insulin. But I think we also have to make sure… I’m working on several bipartisan bills to improve healthcare treatments for low-income mothers and children. I was named a champion of children’s health by the Children’s Hospital Association, and I think my work on healthcare, it’s not just I can describe the problems, but I’ve worked and had legislation passed under Republican and Democratic Presidents to bring solutions to lower the cost, to make access more affordable. And I’m one of those who believes that low income families, children – individuals deserve access to care and it needs to be quality care, which is why I helped pass the Ace Kids Act, which is if you’re a kid on Medicaid, you shouldn’t be bound by your zip code. You should be allowed to cross state lines to get the best care and guarantee it’s paid for, wherever it is you live in this country. Healthcare and the cost of healthcare is deeply personal. I have family members with major chronic problems, chronic issues, and irrespective of whether I’m in Congress or not, I want to make sure that it’s affordable, that it’s worth the paper It’s written on, that’s some of the challenge with the ACA. You know, immediately it expanded and let adults onto the system who are able bodied and childless and then it immediately said that, so that put kids, disabled children, children who are on low and fixed incomes on an uneven footing with the adults in the system. I think we have to change that. I believe we do need to make sure that there’s a strong safety net. This is why my work on the Maternal Mental Health side of things has been so impactful. With a Democrat, I got President Trump to sign into the legislation that landmark, with regard to finding out and investigating every maternal death in this country and then bringing solutions to it.

Miller: Marie, I’ve got to interrupt you because we’re almost out of time and we just gave you a lot of time there and Joe Kemp, I want to give you a chance to respond to an article that came out last night from the AP. They reported that your campaign paid more than $11,000 to a member of the Proud Boys. In addition to contact and endorsements you’ve had over the last year with figures in the White Nationalist Movement and the Oath Keepers Militia Group, what do you say to voters who are concerned that if elected to Congress, you would seek to legitimize the views of white supremacists and extremists?

Kent: So first off, that’s absolute nonsense. This whole White Supremacist narrative. For over 20 years, I served with people of every single race, I put my life in their hands. They put their life in my hands. So the idea that I’m somehow a white nationalist, like Marie has said before on Twitter, is just completely and totally absurd. There’s no truth to that whatsoever. I have repeatedly disavowed and called out folks that are white nationalists quite frequently, have them show up to my Town Halls to attempt to heckle me, but I really don’t care. I encourage them to come and ask their questions and I have no problem debating them because I do in-person Town Halls throughout the entire District. So all of this white nationalist nonsense is just to distract from the real issues that are at hand. My movement, the America First Movement, is about fighting for the sovereignty and the dignity of every single American regardless of their race, their religion or sexuality, any of that. I am very inclusive with the folks that I want to bring into the America First Movement and to fight for.

Miller: I’m gonna give each of you 30 seconds just to leave our listeners with one last bit to better understand. You will go in reverse order. So, Jaime Herrera Beutler, you can go first – 30 seconds.

Herrera Beutler: I’m the only candidate in this race who understands what makes Southwest Washington special and has a record of helping support families, individuals whether it’s fighting inflation, preserving Social Security, protecting and focusing on community safety, and making sure that we protect our native salmon runs. I have more work to do in this space and I want to continue to serve in Congress to make sure that these priorities are advanced. I think it’s incredibly important that folks understand that my opponent has said on multiple occasions, that there’s nothing wrong with- white people should start special interest groups with stopping illegal immigration so that we can maintain a white majority…

Miller: Thirty seconds. I apologize, I gotta interrupt you, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez?

Gluesenkamp Perez: I am the only candidate that is going to fight for a woman’s right to choose. I am the only candidate that’s going to protect our right to contraception. I am the only candidate who is going to protect LGBTQ rights and the right to marry. This is a very clear choice. The stakes could not be higher in this race. And you know, I am the only candidate who is actually out here growing jobs in this economy.

Miller: Joe Kemp, thirty seconds to you.

Kent: Yeah, I’m the only candidate in this race, right now, that has a clear vision for the America first policies to bring back our manufacturing. Jamie benefits from those who shipped our jobs overseas and endless conflict. Jamie is voting to accelerate this conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Immigration? I want to build the wall. I want to tighten the labor market in favor of American workers. We cannot rely on these people that are bought and paid for by corporate special interest groups, like Jaime Herrera Beutler to defend us any longer. We have a real choice to make.

Miller: Joe Kent, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and Jaime Herrera Beutler, thanks very much for joining us.

Jaime Beutler is currently serving as the Representative of Washington’s Third District, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat, co-owns an Auto Repair Shop in Portland, Joe Kent, Republican, is a retired US Army Green Beret. We’ll be back tomorrow.


Contact “Think Out Loud®”

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show, or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983. The call-in phone number during the noon hour is 888-665-5865.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

Become a Sustainer now at opb.org and help ensure OPB’s fact-based reporting, in-depth news and engaging programs thrive in 2025 and beyond.
We’ve gone to incredible places together this year. Support OPB’s essential coverage and exploration in 2025 and beyond. Join as a monthly Sustainer now or with a special year-end contribution. 
THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR: