Washington state Sen. John Braun announced his plans Tuesday to take on U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in what’s expected to be a highly contested 2026 midterm election.

Braun, R-Centralia, a Navy veteran and business owner, brings legislative experience to the race, having served in Washington’s state Senate since 2013. He was elected as the Republican Senate leader in 2020.

In his announcement, Braun said he would focus on securing U.S. borders and maintaining national defense if elected to Congress.

“I know how to fight bad policy — and how to craft good policy that makes a difference for people here in Southwest Washington,” Braun said in a statement. “I look forward to working with President Trump on a positive agenda that gets America back on the right track.”

Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, was first elected to Washington’s 3rd Congressional District seat in 2022. She defeated Joe Kent, a career soldier who aligned with President Trump’s wing of the Republican Party and helped unseat longtime district Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican who voted to impeach Trump during his first term. Kent lost a rematch with Gluesenkamp Perez in 2024, but was elevated by Trump to lead the National Counterterrorism Center this year.

Gluesenkamp Perez’s win over Kent in a 2024 election that favored Trump for a second term undercut Kent’s push to inject national political issues like immigration and foreign aid to Ukraine into the local race.

Braun’s bid for 2026 could offer voters someone with more experience handling local political issues in Southwest Washington. His legislative accomplishments in the 2025 session included local issues like school transportation funding and stumping for Republican favored budgets that limited tax increases. But Braun has also begun to weigh in on national politics as he tries to court Trump voters, most recently saying critiques of the president’s reconciliation bill were “false” and that it would not gut health care or food access in Washington.

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“I just don’t think we’re getting the type of representation from the incumbent that we deserve,” Braun told the Chronicle during a July meeting with the Centralia-based paper’s editorial board. “Not just here in our local community, but broadly around the 3rd Congressional District. It’s a Republican district. A moderate Republican district, but it’s a Republican district, and that’s not what we’re getting from Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.”

Gluesenkamp Perez, whose family owns an auto shop in Portland, wasted little time pushing back on Braun, calling him a “career politician” in a statement Tuesday.

“It’s no surprise that the D.C. swamp has recruited him to run for Congress,” the Democrat wrote. “They know they can count on him to maintain business as usual which is saddling future generations with enormous debt and giving even more handouts to special interests.”

The race in the midterms is likely to be highly competitive after federal policies by the Trump administration have angered some voters. The Cook Political Report ranks Washington’s 3rd District as one of 18 “toss up” districts across the country that could determine control of Congress.

At least two other candidates — Vancouver Democrat Brent Hennrich and Willapa Bay Republican Antony Barran — have declared their candidacies for 2026 as well, according to the Chronicle.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/08/12/john-braun-marie-gluesenkamp-perez-congress/