For the past several weeks, 3rd Congressional District candidate Joe Kent has come under fire from fellow Republican Heidi St. John, who has blasted her opponent in advertisements for his support of Bernie Sanders and previously being registered as a Democrat.
At different points in the advertisements, St. John has dubbed Kent “Portland Joe” and a “Bernie Bro” as they both campaign in separate efforts to unseat U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground.
Although Kent is running on a campaign ostensibly to the right of Herrera Beutler for her seat, he said he doesn’t shy away from pointing out the more populist policy ideas those on the other side of the aisle bring up.
St. John’s campaign has pointed to Kent’s registration as a Democrat in Multnomah County and his voting for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primary.
Kent admits he registered as a Democrat and voted for Sanders in the primary, but he said it was “a very tactical thing at the time.”
The retired Army Special Forces member said while in the military that other than a registration in Pierce County in 2000, he kept his home of record registration in Multnomah County.
“There’s no real Republican Party in Oregon, especially in Multnomah County. Maybe there is, but I’m not aware of it,” Kent said.
Though he had Democratic registration he said he voted for George W. Bush twice, though he became disenfranchised after living through that administration’s foreign policy. He noted one time he registered as a Libtertarian in support of Ron Paul.
When he retired from the military in 2018, he said he had to register in Maryland where he did so as a Republican because the state had “some degree” of the GOP viable in its politics, he said.
Most recently, Kent voted for Sanders in the 2020 primary, which he said was when he was already working for former President Donald Trump’s campaign. As Trump was already a lock to move onto the general election, the move made sense, he said.
“You have a choice there. You can cast your two Trump votes and feel really good about and shout MAGA, or you can register as a Democrat and you can try and push forward the least-favorable opponent for Trump to face in the general (election),” Kent said.
Kent has occasionally shown acknowledgment or support of some policy points from Sanders and others he says align with the populist left.
“I think there’s a lot of common ground that we have,” Kent said.
He said after Sanders’ 2016 run, “a lot of populist ideas (got) choked out by ‘woke’ ideology.” A lot of those earlier points the Vermont senator touched on were more similar to what Trump had advocated for, he said.
Kent said Trump doesn’t receive enough credit for making populist economic and foreign policy more a part of the mainstream GOP. He said his race against Herrera Beutler is indicative of a shift to take on the party establishment.
“I think the populist left leans more toward ‘we need to nationalize everything and redistribute wealth.’ I disagree with that,” Kent said. “But where I think we have some common ground is that we do say that our major corporations that are going to benefit from the security and freedom of America, they shouldn’t get to ship all the jobs overseas.”
Kent said immigration policy plays into economics as well. Whereas human trafficking and cartel involvement is prominent when discussing immigration, he said the larger majority of “economic refugees” are being used by corporate interests for cheap labor.
Another populist pillar Kent supported was avoiding foriegn wars of nation building and “being involved in every single hotspot around the world.”
“That was not a popular Republican sentiment until Trump came on the scene,” Kent said.
Though he said there was nuance in the details, much of the populist ideas used to be advocated by Sanders heavily. He felt Sanders took the establishment payout following 2016, but Kent said he still occasionally sees the “old Bernie” come out in his political statements, pointing to the senator’s standing with Kelloggs workers during their 2021 strike as a recent example.
Kent said he was willing to find common ground with those “fighting for working-class families … fighting to protect America to keep us from going off to crazy, foolish intervention wars.”
“It’s easy to say I’m the America First candidate and I’m just going to regurgitate MAGA at you,” Kent said.
He said a reliance on labels of left and right can distract from what he feels the real struggle is: “we the people against this highly corporatized ruling class.”
In a response to Kent’s explanations, St. John didn’t back away from her criticism, doubling down on his years of Democratic party registration.
“Joe Kent was a registered Democrat in Portland for nearly a decade. This wasn't some sophisticated scheme to help Trump. It is exactly who he is,” St. John wrote in a response.
St. John also took issue with Kent’s association with Sanders’ political ideas.
“Bernie was a self-described Socialist 40-plus years ago when he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont. He was a Socialist 30-plus years ago when he first was elected to Congress, and was a Socialist 15 years ago when he was elected a U.S. Senator. Bernie Sanders has always been a Socialist and still is today,” St. John wrote. “I don't know what ‘old Bernie’ Joe is talking about.”
