As Republican Joe Kent cut the lead of Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez to below 6,000 votes in the latest ballot count Thursday, the campaign for the Skamania County candidate for the 3rd Congressional District struck a confident tone.
“As expected the margin in this race has tightened, but we remain very optimistic that when all the ballots are counted the voters of Southwest Washington will reject hyper-partisanship and extremism by electing Marie Gluesenkamp Perez the next member of Congress from Washington’s 3rd Congressional District,” the Gluesenkamp Perez campaign said in a statement. “In today’s ballot count Joe Kent did not make the gains he needed in order to have more than an outside chance of flipping the outcome of this race. His result was particularly disappointing for him in populous Clark County. Going forward, the vast majority of the votes remaining to be counted are in Clark County, where Marie’s campaign has run strongest, and if current vote counting trends hold, Marie will win. While there are still too many outstanding ballots remaining to declare victory, our confidence that Marie will ultimately defy expectations and prevail is growing by the day.”
While remaining ballots in most counties in the 3rd Congressional District have been counted, there were still an estimated 55,000 ballots still in play as of Thursday night — most of them from Clark County.
As of 7 p.m. Thursday, Gluesenkamp Perez had 132,161 votes — or 50.85% — while Kent had 126,279 for 48.58% of the total ballots. There had been 1,479 write-in votes.
According to posts on Kent's social media accounts, his campaign is hopeful that ballots from election day voters will reverse the race in his favor. His campaign declined to comment when contacted by The Chronicle after Thursday’s updated count was released.
Kent also trailed Gluesenkamp Perez and incumbent Jaime Herrera Beutler in the primary election, but he pulled ahead of Herrera Beutler in later counts to earn a trip to the general election.
Other Races
Meanwhile, there was little to no change in the outcomes of other races in Lewis County and the surrounding area.
Nineteenth Legislative District Republican incumbent state Reps. Jim Walsh and Joel McEntire cruised to easy victories over their Democratic opponents, with each garnering more than 75 percent of the vote in Lewis County. Twentieth District state Reps. Peter Abbarno and Ed Orcutt both ran unopposed.
In the race for Lewis County sheriff, incumbent Rob Snaza widened his election night lead over challenger Tracy Murphy. He was ahead 53.26% to 45.71% as of Thursday night.
Scott Brummer’s lead over Harry Baghwandin in the race for Lewis County commissioner in District 3 was 58.39% to 40.18%
Incumbent Lewis County Clerk Scott Tinney had 57.05% of the vote against challenger Linda Williams, who was at 41.17%.
In a race to determine who will replace retiring Lewis County Assessor Dianne Dorey, Ross Nielson was ahead by more than 2,000 votes with 52.44% of the ballots cast in his favor.
Mike Hadaller, with 53.08% of the vote, looks to be the next Lewis County Public Utility District commissioner after besting Kevin Emerson, who was at 46.17% as of Thursday night.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer, Auditor Larry Grove, Coroner Warren McLeod and Treasurer Arny Davis all ran unopposed, as did Lewis County District Court judges Wade Samuelson and R.W. Buzzard.
The Nov. 8 general election will be certified by the state on Nov. 29.
