Joe Kent on the 2024 primary race for Washington's 3rd Congressional District

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- With the Washington state primary just around the corner, one focus will be Congressional District 3.

That district covers Southwest Washington, including Clark, Lewis and Cowlitz counties. It's home to cities such as Vancouver, Camas, Washougal and Battle Ground. It's also a swing district, voting for Donald Trump for president in 2020 by about a 4% margin.

Joe Kent, a retired Green Beret and Republican, returned to Eye on Northwest Politics to discuss his run for the congressional seat once again, after previously losing to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

Kent said he is choosing to run again because he claims Gluesenkamp Perez - who is running to keep her seat - is supporting policies that he claims are "destroying the country."

Should he succeed in the primary on Tuesday, Kent said he intended to hold her accountable for her voting record.

"She has been supporting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's destruction of our country, she voted to keep the border wide open, she's voted for all of the 'Bidenomics' that's causing this inflation that's hurting working families," he emphasized. "She voted to allow biological men into our daughter's dressing rooms. She's voted again to prioritize foreign aid and foreign wars that have taken us to the verge of World War III over the citizens here in the district. So I plan on holding her accountable for her voting record and outlining how I'm going to fix these problems."

Since the top two finishers in Tuesday's primary - no matter the political affiliation - will face off with each other in November, Kent noted his hope for Republican party unity, as the district previously had a low Republican turnout in 2022.

"Last time when I ran, we had a very hard fought Republican primary. We didn't have unity going into the general election," he recalled. "So I'm solely focused on taking down Marie Perez and taking our district back."

In the Republican primary, Kent will face challenger Leslie Lewallen. However, he still believes he can win the nomination based on his military service record, his campaigning throughout the community and endorsement from the Washington State Republican Party.

"I ran last time, we got really close, only lost by less than a percentage point. I know this district very well. I've been out campaigning now for almost three and a half years," he said. "So I have a lot of great relationships all throughout the district. It's a big district. It's very diverse. We've built a really good grassroots coalition."

Regarding the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Kent noted his support of the court's decision in the Dodd case, believing those types of issues should fall to the state level. Taking the anti-abortion stance, he offered up another potential solution.

"What I want to focus on is making it possible for people to have children, to streamline adoption," he said. "And also to make the cost of having kids and have that cost go down by making baby essentials like diapers, baby formula, those types of things tax free. Give good child tax deductions as well for working families so that we can really strengthen the working American family."

Kent also asserted the need to seal off the southern border, due to drug trafficking.

"The fentanyl is coming from across the wide open southern border. I've been down to the southern border twice. I've done ride-alongs with most major counties in our district," he said. "I've spoken with the DEA task force on the I-5 corridor. The fentanyl that's killing people in Washington 3 is coming from across the wide open southern border. And I think that's true for the majority of the state and the majority of the country."

But thinking locally, Kent stated that - should he be elected - one of his priorities would involve another Interstate Bridge.

"We need a third bridge that I think should be part of a larger infrastructure program from the federal government," he said. "A ring road, so to speak, that starts south of Portland, has its own third independent bridge and then rejoins I-5 somewhere to the north of Ridgefield. So that all the through traffic that's coming up and down the West Coast can avoid the major urban areas."

Watch the full interview in the video above.