Leslie Lewallen, R-Camas and candidate for Washington’s Third Congressional District, hopped aboard her whistle-stop tour to visit over 20 communities across the district on Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 20.
Lewallen said that the two-day tour included visiting small businesses and festivals, holding meet and greets and more, which allowed her to hear resident concerns from every corner of the Third Congressional District, as well as their support for her over Republican opponent Joe Kent.
Opposition to Kent
With her experience serving on the Camas City Council, Lewallen believes she’s proven to voters she can provide results in the district.
“They’re just so glad that there’s a viable, proven results winner that they can vote for,” she said of residents. “So, you know, [Kent has] been campaigning for the past four years for this position, and while he’s been professionally campaigning, I’ve actually been delivering results for the folks here in southwest Washington.”
Lewallen, still a sitting member on Camas council, said she’s helped save a student resource officer position in the City of Camas, among other efforts.
“I’ve been fighting for parental rights. I sit on the city school subcommittee,” Lewallen said. “I’ve been fighting the homeless crisis here. I sit on the homeless subcommittee in Camas, and I work with our regional partners. I also sit on the Regional Transportation Commission, and I’ve been addressing transportation needs here in southwest Washington.”
After Kent lost the 2022 election, he returned to the campaign trail, which is working well for him, according to a recent poll in June by the Northwest Progressive Institute. A total of 46% of 649 people surveyed, likely November voters, said they’d vote for Kent compared with 45% who said they’d vote for incumbent Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, while 9% said they were unsure.
In his June 24 article about the poll, Andrew Villeneuve stated Kent’s support from the Washington state Republican Party and Donald Trump is “leaving Lewallen without much of an opening.”
Lewallen believes otherwise, however.
“Really, the only thing that Joe Kent has delivered to the folks of southwest Washington is he delivered a safe Republican seat to a progressive Democrat who does not belong in office,” Lewallen said.
She added the Republicans she spoke with at Battle Ground’s Harvest Days festival, July 20, indicated their strong support of her.
“A lot of folks at that event told me that they already voted for me and that they did not like Joe Kent, that in the last election cycle, they either left the ballot blank or they voted for Marie Gluesenkamp Perez because they thought he was too extreme,” Lewallen said. “... From the minute I filed to run last April of 2023, the overwhelming response that I got then and I continue to get now is, ‘Thank God there’s an alternative to Joe Kent,’ during the whistle-stop tour. We had person after person after person saying what they didn’t like about him, how they weren’t going to vote for him and how he had no shot, that he had his chance and he lost.”
Community concerns
Lewallen’s two-day whistle-stop tour kicked off in Skamania County, where she heard localized concerns, including about wildfires and how they are impacted. One resident said his wife was an employee of the public utility, and he was concerned with the breaching of the lower Snake River Dam and how that could affect the flow of the Columbia River.
In Clark County, Lewallen said residents echoed what she heard knocking on doors and on phone calls during the campaign.
“They don’t want to see southwest Washington become like Portland,” Lewallen said. “They don’t want the drugs, the crime, the homelessness and businesses shutting down. And inflation is another key topic for them. People are really struggling to make ends meet. They’re having a hard time paying their grocery bills and putting gas in the car at the same time.”
In Pacific, Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties, logging and forestry, as well as fishing issues, were prevalent concerns among residents.
In South Bend, the county seat of Pacific County, she met with a former superintendent of schools there regarding his concerns about parental rights.
“He was really concerned about parental rights and parents being put back in the driver’s seat with respect to their children’s education,” Lewallen said. “He said that he had to retire because he didn’t like the trend that was happening in the public school system.”
She said, when visiting Lewis County, residents shared similar concerns, as was opposition to Kent.
“We’ve been out in [Lewis] County a lot, and, again, folks are not happy with Joe. They’re not happy with Marie,” Lewallen said. “The district was won by Trump by four points in 2020, and Tiffany Smiley won the district by eight points in 2022. So this is a safe Republican district. It’s one of four districts that Trump did win in the last election cycle that’s currently being held by a Democrat.”
The Southern border
Lewallen said another thing she frequently heard on tour was Gluesenkamp Perez’s statement regarding the southern border.
“They could not believe Marie Gleusenkamp Perez was so flippant on video saying nobody stays awake at night worrying about the Southern border,” Lewallen said. “I think that is really something she’s not going to be able to escape.”
With Interstate 5 heading through the Third Congressional District, the Southern border and its issues affect the region, Lewallen said.
“Look, if we secure our Southern border, that cuts the head of the snake off. You know, that cuts off the drugs, the crime, the human trafficking that’s coming straight up that I-5 corridor and [is] taking root in our communities,” Lewallen said. “I hear every single solitary day from folks about the impacts of fentanyl, and it’s not a red issue. It’s not a blue issue. It’s a red, white and blue issue. We held a fentanyl town hall, and there’s folks from all walks of life who have lost loved ones from fentanyl, and I’ve seen parents come up to me and cry and say, ‘We’ve got to fix this.’ We absolutely have to fix this.”
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