U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat, represents Washington’s 3rd Congressional District. (Courtesy of Gluesenkamp Perez campaign)
In her tough reelection fight for her southwest Washington U.S. House seat, Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez often touts her willingness to work with Republicans on policy.
She crossed the aisle again this week, one of only three Democrats to back House Speaker Mike Johnson’s measure to fund the federal government on a short-term basis.
That continuing resolution failed on a 202-220 vote as 14 Republicans defied Johnson and joined Democrats opposing the legislation.
The almost unanimous Democratic opposition stemmed from the inclusion of the GOP’s Safeguard America Voting Eligibility Act requiring a person to provide proof they are a U.S. citizen when registering to vote in a federal election.
GOP lawmakers say the restrictions will help prevent noncitizens from voting in presidential and congressional contests, which Democrats counter is already illegal and extremely rare. Gluesenkamp Perez voted for the so-called SAVE Act when it passed as a stand-alone bill in July.
On Thursday, the congresswoman’s office issued a statement explaining she backed Johnson’s continuing resolution because she “does not support government shutdowns or non-citizens voting in U.S. elections.”
“Now that it’s failed to pass the House, she urges members of both parties in both chambers to quickly agree on a plan that could actually become law and avoid a looming government shutdown that would harm working families,” reads the statement.
The vote comes with Gluesenkamp Perez locked in a fierce contest with Republican Joe Kent in the 3rd Congressional District, which spans Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, and Skamania counties and a touch of Thurston County.
She pulled off one of the biggest electoral upsets in 2022 by beating Kent, flipping control of the seat to Democrats. The outcome of their rematch in November could determine whether Johnson is Speaker in 2025.
Republican congressional candidate Joe Kent, left, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, right, speak with reporters before an Aug. 17, 2024 fundraiser in a Vancouver, Wash. restaurant. (Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard)
Last month, Johnson came to Vancouver to fundraise for Kent, who’s also backed by former president Donald Trump.
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote on the funding bill, the National Republican Congressional Committee had been publicly questioning what the incumbent congresswoman would do.
“Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Her anti-border security policies got us into this mess, and if Perez votes to shut down the government to support illegals voting, southwest Washington will know for sure she is an open border extremist,” NRCC spokesperson Ben Petersen said in a Sept. 9 release.
The GOP campaign operation did not issue a statement following the vote. A spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.
In the meantime, Gluesenkamp Perez is not out of sorts with Democratic colleagues because of her vote. They say they know she’s an independent thinker and understand she is battling for reelection in a battleground district – one of five Democrats in a district won by Trump in 2020.
And defeat of the funding bill was never in doubt as Republicans opposed to it made their positions clear days earlier. The focus now, Democrats said, is getting a resolution without any poison pills through Congress by the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30.
“The only way to prevent a government shutdown is through a bipartisan solution that can pass through the House, Senate, and White House—something Speaker Johnson has known all along,” Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said Thursday. “House Republicans need to stop wasting time and work with us to pass a short-term funding agreement.”