Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has beaten Trump-backed Republican Joe Kent - in a win that represents a major upset for the Democrats and more humiliation for the former president.
Five days after voters went to the polls in the 2022 midterms, the Associated Press called the race for the 34-year-old, and local media described her win as “perhaps the most stunning political upset in the country this year”.
“I am humbled and honored by the vote of confidence the people of Southwest Washington have put in me and my campaign. Right up to the end, far-away pundits and prognosticators said this race couldn’t be won,” she said in a statement on Saturday evening.
“They dismissed the possibility that a moderate Democrat focused on prioritising the needs of this district over partisan point scoring could win in a rural, working class district.”
Both the Seattle Times and the New York Times had earlier called the race for Ms Perez, the owner of a auto-repair businesss in southern Washington state, about 150 south of Seattle
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The win for Ms Perez, in her first campaign for elected office, puts more pressure on Republicans as they seek to secure enough votes to win a majority in the House of Representatives.
Ahead of Tuesday’s midterms, there had been widesspread talk of a “red wave” that could allow Republicans to win control of both chambers of Congress. As the situation currently stands, Democrats have 202 and 211 for the Republicans. Either party requires 218 for the majority, and to select the powerful Speaker of the House.
In the Senate, meanwhile, the outcome is might not be decided until December and the run-off race in Georgia, though late on Saturday it was projected Democrats were poised to win the Senate seat in Nevada and hold onto the upper chamber.
Either way, the red wave that Republicans had been hoping for did not take place. Experts believe that while the economy is struggling and Joe Biden has a modest approcal rating, there was anxiety about the scrapping of Roe, and concern about the continued lies spread about the 2020 results by GOP candidates, that had not shown up in polling.
If so, Washington’s largely rural third congressional district was a case in point. While Mr Kent, a former green beret whose wife was killed by an Isis bomb in Syria, adopted a hardline, Maga-infused agenda, calling for the impeachment of Mr Biden, Ms Perez focussed on local issues.
She also said the scrapping of Roe had been a “game-changer”
