There’s no love lost between a freshman Democratic congresswoman and her repeat GOP rival in a swing Washington House district - Washington Examiner

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) and her vanquished 2022 Republican rival, Joe Kent , have been sniping at each other for more than two years .

Winning the district is key to both parties’ chances of claiming a House majority.

Washington ’s 3rd Congressional District is one of only eight held by a Democratic lawmaker but which, in 2020 , would have voted for then-President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden .

Ruben Navarrette : Joe Kent has the endorsement of President Trump in the 2024 race.

He says Kent has been a leading critic of U.S. and Western assistance to Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia .

He hired a campaign consultant who was a member of the Proud Boys, a right-wing nationalist group implicated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

Joe Kent is seeking to show a more centrist side in his second congressional bid.

He has focused more on public policy issues, such as criticism of the congresswoman's role in securing $600 million of federal funding to rebuild one of the region’s main arteries, the Interstate 5 bridge.

House Republicans are fighting to tie Gluesenkamp Perez to the border crisis and rise of fentanyl.