Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez of Washington was one of six Democrats who voted with Republicans on Nov. 12 to clear a short-term spending measure ending a six-week stalemate to reopen the government. President Donald Trump’s signature ended the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history — which Gluesenkamp Pérez referred to as a “partisan car crash.”
A moderate Democrat who co-chairs the Blue Dog Coalition, she has frequently bucked her party. She supported an earlier version of the GOP-led spending patch before the shutdown began, although she missed the Sept. 19 passage vote in the House. In a statement explaining her November vote, Gluesenkamp Pérez accused lawmakers of being more concerned with scoring partisan points than with helping constituents. “The last several weeks have been a case study in why most Americans can’t stand Congress,” she said.
Getting to Congress: Before she entered politics, Gluesenkamp Pérez was the co-owner of an auto repair shop with her husband, Dean. Her first attempts at public office fell short: She lost a 2016 race for the Skamania county commission and a 2018 race for the county public utility commission. Gluesenkamp Pérez landed her first elected position in 2019 when she joined the Underwood Conservation District Board of Supervisors, a local entity that works on natural resource conservation. She held that post until her run for the 3rd District seat held by then-Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican, in 2022. Gluesenkamp Pérez finished first in the all-party primary and faced off against Trump-backed GOP candidate Joe Kent in the November election. Winning by just over 1 percentage point, Gluesenkamp Pérez defeated Kent and flipped the district in what was otherwise a largely disappointing election cycle for Democrats.
