Politics
This Democrat pulled off one of the country's biggest upsets. Can she win again in Trump country?
Two years ago, one of the nation’s biggest political upsets took place here amid the radiant greenery of the Pacific Northwest. A new mom, the 34-year-old owner of an auto repair shop, made a run for Congress with zero help from national Democrats and nabbed a seat Republicans had held for more than a decade.
Now that seat is central to the fight for control of the House.
The incumbent, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, is among the least likely Democrats you’ll find in Congress.
She trashes the Biden administration’s record on immigration and won’t endorse Kamala Harris for president. She resides down a gravel road in a house she and her husband built. She exalts those who work with their hands — plumbers, mechanics, electricians — and belittles the highbrows who populate Washington, speaking the put-upon language of people ignored or disdained because of where they live or how they labor.
“It makes my skin crawl,” she told a small gathering at a strip-mall bar and grill, “when I hear a politician get up there and they say, ‘My dad was just a janitor. I’m the first person in my family to go to college.’” What does that sound like to everyone else in the room who didn’t go to college?”
(Her degree in economics from Portland’s prestigious Reed College goes unmentioned.)
Columnist Mark Z. Barabak joins candidates for various offices as they hit the campaign trail in this momentous election year.
Still, Gluesenkamp Perez’s willingness to buck her party and her fluency in grievance politics are the reason she stands a chance in this southwest corner of Washington state, in a district that twice voted for Donald Trump and will surely do so again Nov. 5. She’s one of the few rural Democrats left in Congress and one of just five House Democrats seeking reelection in pro-Trump districts. All are endangered species.
Her Republican opponent, whom Gluesenkamp Perez barely defeated two years ago, is an unreconstructed MAGA warrior, who hangs with the Proud Boys and white nationalists and parrots Trump’s blather about a stolen 2020 election and Jan. 6 martyrs. He moved to the district less than a year before launching his candidacy.
But given the district’s Republican lean, the rematch appears to be a toss-up at a time control of the House may come down to just a handful of seats.
“A bunch of people who didn’t vote in 2022 in the midterm will be voting this time around,” said Mark Stephan, who teaches political science at Washington State University in Vancouver, population roughly 200,000, which is the closest thing the district has to a large city. “Enough that it could go either direction.”
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With the campaign heading into the homestretch, Gluesenkamp Perez recently embarked on a RV tour of the 3rd Congressional District, down twisting two-lane roads, past farmland and forests daubed with red, yellow and orange. Her husband, Dean, the couple’s 3-year-old son, Ciro, and the family’s German shepherd, Uma Furman, came along for the ride.
Six days, 20 stops, many in wide spots with just a few thousand residents. It’s in those rural reaches the campaign will be decided.
At the end of Day One, after visiting two small taverns for “Pints with Perez” events, it was time for some family fun. So the RV bee-lined to a chainsaw museum in Amboy, where the couple spent nearly an hour browsing the floor-to-ceiling display, eyes wide with delight.
“This is super cool,” exulted Dean, an auto mechanic who does the repair work at the family-run garage.
“Yes, this is amazing,” the congresswoman agreed.
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and her husband, Dean, in a chainsaw museum.
(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)
Gluesenkamp Perez was born and raised in Texas, but her family has deep roots in Washington state, going back generations on her mother’s side. (Gluesenkamp Perez’s great-great grandfather helped quarry the stone used to build the state Capitol.) She spent childhood summers with family in Bellingham, playing in the woods and developing an abiding love of nature.
There are no political reds or blues in the forest, she tells audiences.
Gluesenkamp Perez’s father, an immigrant from Mexico, pastored in an evangelical church in Houston. When Perez stopped going to services, her parents stopped paying for college, so she worked three jobs to pay her way through Reed. One was in a factory making iPhone cases.
As she bids for reelection, Gluesenkamp Perez’s main sales pitch is her blue-collar self.
Someone who appreciates hard labor and thrills to the sight of heavy machinery. Who scrounged to build her home and start a small business, struggled to meet a payroll and was forced to deal with clueless bureaucrats. In short, someone who shares her constituents’ skepticism toward big government and antipathy for far-off Washington, D.C.
Recounting an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill, Gluesenkamp Perez describes looking over the witnesses with their fusty manner and fancy pedigrees and wondering if any had ever turned a wrench.
“It’s wild to me to see these D.C. staffer bros in bow ties making decisions,” she said, calling for national codification of abortion rights to nullify the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. “They don’t know what the f—.” Her voice trailed off, the crowd at another saloon stop erupting in laughter at her indecorous F-bomb.
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Gluesenkamp Perez’s Republican opponent, Joe Kent, is trying to nationalize the race, turning the contest into a ratification of Trump, his pugnacious personality and belligerent policies. She’s trying to rise above party labels — even as national Democrats and their allies pour millions into her campaign — and focus almost entirely on the whys and wherefores of the 3rd District.
The congressional seat can’t be surrendered to “a political hack,” she told a few score at a roadhouse grill in Amboy, done up with cobwebs and skeletons for Halloween. “We have got to have a seat that’s based on local issues … not something that’s imported from a think tank or political action committee, but here. Us. We are the solution.”
Gluesenkamp Perez, holding her son, Ciro, answers questions after a “Pints with Perez” event in Amboy, Wash.
(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)
Her platform is all practicality: making farm loans more accessible; better insulating mobile homes to save energy; giving people the right to choose where to repair broken appliances and the like, rather than having to ship them back to the manufacturer.
Why she asked, should tax-deferred 529 savings accounts only pay for college tuition, books and such? “We needs a tax code that honors the trades,” she said, allowing write-offs for the kinds of equipment used by loggers, plumbers and electricians.
In Washington, Gluesenkamp Perez has had no compunction separating herself from her party. A vote study by CQ Roll Call found her the second-most likely House Democrat to break ranks.
She backed a resolution rebuking Harris for her role in the administration’s border policy and was one of just four Democrats supporting a defense bill that would have limited abortion access, transgender care and diversity training for military personnel. She opposes an assault-weapons ban — though Gluesenkamp Perez would raise the age for purchasing one from 18 to 21 — and was one of just two House Democrats to oppose a student-debt relief plan proposed by the Biden administration.
The latter drew a flood of scathing reviews of the family’s auto repair shop — “Worst car care Ive been to,” one Yelp reviewer wrote online — in a purposeful left-wing campaign of retribution. Much of the trolling came from outside the district.
At home, Democrats like Howard Marshack are more understanding.
The candidate at a “Pints with Perez” event in Woodland, Wash.
(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)
“She isn’t as liberal as I am,” said Marshack, who was seeing his congresswoman in person for the first time at a Rotary Club luncheon in Vancouver. As he spoke, a steady rain pattered on the promenade facing Portland, just across the Columbia River.
“I can’t help but think that a significant amount of her stances are genuine and possibly some are because she needs to represent her district,” said Marshack, 75, a retired family law attorney “That’s OK, given the options I have … I can’t stand her opponent.”
::
The words “Trump” and “Harris” never pass Gluesenkamp Perez’s lips, if she can possibly manage.
But in this ferociously inflamed political season, discussion of the fight for the White House is unavoidable. Drawn in, Gluesenkamp Perez appears less than sure-footed, pausing and carefully choosing her words, as though verbally picking her way through a political minefield — which she is.
In Longview, the district’s second-largest city (population not quite 40,000), she spoke to a friendly audience of about 50 residents gathered in a curtained-off section of another bar and grill. Several wanted to know her thoughts about the two presidential antagonists.
One woman asked what she should say to Trump-supporting neighbors who fail, she suggested, to realize how he’ll hurt their interests if elected. Gluesenkamp Perez’s roundabout response — about respecting people who do manual labor, building community — petered out in a small sigh. “It’s a wild political climate,” she said.
A man wondered what the congresswoman thought of Harris’ proposal for a $25,000 tax credit for first-time home-buyers. Another long and winding answer followed — about affordability, regulations, building her own home, the virtues of shop class — before Gluesenkamp Perez finally expressed concern the proposal could merely end up boosting housing costs.
The refusal to embrace Harris in a district the Democrat seems destined to lose is hardly surprising. “What I say is not going to change anyone’s vote in my community,” she said as she left the Shamrock grill and prepared to roll to her next stop.
At least not in the presidential race. But it could make a big difference in her coin-flip race for reelection.
Gluesenkamp Perez may be a freshman member of Congress — and an improbable one, at that. But she’s no political naif.
Politics
Video: Walz Drops Re-Election Bid as Minnesota Fraud Scandal Grows
new video loaded: Walz Drops Re-Election Bid as Minnesota Fraud Scandal Grows
transcript
transcript
Walz Drops Re-Election Bid as Minnesota Fraud Scandal Grows
Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota abandoned his re-election bid to focus on handling a scandal over fraud in social service programs that grew under his administration.
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“I’ve decided to step out of this race, and I’ll let others worry about the election while I focus on the work that’s in front of me for the next year.” “All right, so this is Quality Learing Center — meant to say Quality ‘Learning’ Center.” “Right now we have around 56 kids enrolled. If the children are not here, we mark absence.”
By Shawn Paik
January 6, 2026
Politics
Pelosi heir-apparent calls Trump’s Venezuela move a ‘lawless coup,’ urges impeachment, slams Netanyahu
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A San Francisco Democrat demanded the impeachment of President Donald Trump, accusing him of carrying out a “coup” against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener, seen as the likely congressional successor to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, also took a swipe at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Wiener has frequently drawn national attention for his progressive positions, including his legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom designating California as a “refuge” for transgender children and remarks at a San Francisco Pride Month event referring to California children as “our kids.”
In a lengthy public statement following the Trump administration’s arrest and extradition of Maduro to New York, Wiener said the move shows the president only cares about “enriching his public donors” and “cares nothing for the human or economic cost of conquering another country.”
KAMALA HARRIS BLASTS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S CAPTURE OF VENEZUELA’S MADURO AS ‘UNLAWFUL AND UNWISE’
California State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, speaks at a rally. (John Sciulli/Getty Images)
“This lawless coup is an invitation for China to invade Taiwan, for Russia to escalate its conquest in Ukraine, and for Netanyahu to expand the destruction of Gaza and annex the West Bank,” said Wiener, who originally hails from South Jersey.
He suggested that the Maduro operation was meant to distract from purportedly slumping poll numbers, the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents, and to essentially seize another country’s oil reserves.
“Trump is a total failure,” Wiener said. “By engaging in this reckless act, Trump is also making the entire world less safe … Trump is making clear yet again that, under this regime, there are no rules, there are no laws, there are no norms – there is only whatever Trump thinks is best for himself and his cronies at a given moment in time.”
GREENE HITS TRUMP OVER VENEZUELA STRIKES, ARGUES ACTION ‘DOESN’T SERVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’
In response, the White House said the administration’s actions against Maduro were “lawfully executed” and included a federal arrest warrant.”
“While Democrats take twisted stands in support of indicted drug smugglers, President Trump will always stand with victims and families who can finally receive closure thanks to this historic action,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.
Supporters of the operation have pushed back on claims of “regime change” – an accusation Wiener also made – pointing to actions by Maduro-aligned courts that barred top opposition leader María Corina Machado from running, even as publicly reported results indicated her proxy, Edmundo González Urrutia, won the vote.
“Trump’s illegal invasion of Venezuela isn’t about drugs, and it isn’t about helping the people of Venezuela or restoring Venezuelan democracy,” Wiener added. “Yes, Maduro is awful, but that’s not what the invasion is about. It’s all about oil and Trump’s collapsing support at home.”
EX-ESPN STAR KEITH OLBERMANN CALLS FOR IMPEACHMENT OF TRUMP OVER VENEZUELA STRIKES THAT CAPTURED MADURO
Around the country, a handful of other Democrats referenced impeachment or impeachable offenses, but did not go as far as Wiener in demanding such proceedings.
Rep. April McClain-Delaney, D-Md., who represents otherwise conservative “Mountain Maryland” in the state’s panhandle, said Monday that Democrats should “imminently consider impeachment proceedings,” according to TIME.
McClain-Delaney said Trump acted without constitutionally-prescribed congressional authorization and wrongly voiced “intention to ‘run’ the country.”
SCHUMER BLASTED TRUMP FOR FAILING TO OUST MADURO — NOW WARNS ARREST COULD LEAD TO ‘ENDLESS WAR’
One frequent Trump foil, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., cited in a statement that she has called for Trump’s impeachment in the past; blaming Republicans for letting the president “escape accountability.”
“Today, many Democrats have understandably questioned whether impeachment is possible again under the current political reality. I am reconsidering that view,” Waters said.
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“What we are witnessing is an unprecedented escalation of an unlawful invasion, the detention of foreign leaders, and a president openly asserting power far beyond what the Constitution allows,” she said, while appearing to agree with Trump that Maduro was involved in drug trafficking and “collaborat[ion] with… terrorists.”
Wiener’s upcoming primary is considered the deciding election in the D+36 district, while a handful of other lesser-known candidates have reportedly either filed FEC paperwork or declared their candidacy, including San Francisco Councilwoman Connie Chan.
Politics
California Congressman Doug LaMalfa dies, further narrowing GOP margin in Congress
California Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) has died, GOP leadership and President Trump confirmed Tuesday morning.
“Jacquie and I are devastated about the sudden loss of our friend, Congressman Doug LaMalfa. Doug was a loving father and husband, and staunch advocate for his constituents and rural America,” said Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the House majority whip, in a post on X. “Our prayers are with Doug’s wife, Jill, and their children.”
LaMalfa, 65, was a fourth-generation rice farmer from Oroville and staunch Trump supporter who had represented his Northern California district for the past 12 years. His seat was one of several that was in jeopardy under the state’s redrawn districts approved by voters with Proposition 50.
Emergency personnel responded to a 911 call from LaMalfa’s residence at 6:50 p.m. Monday, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. The congressman was taken to the Enloe Medical Center in Chico, where he died while undergoing emergency surgery, authorities said.
An autopsy to determine the cause of death is planned, according to the sheriff’s office.
LaMalfa’s district — which stretches from the northern outskirts of Sacramento, through Redding at the northern end of the Central Valley and Alturas in the state’s northeast corner — is largely rural, and constituents have long said they felt underrepresented in liberal California.
LaMalfa put much of his focus on boosting federal water supplies to farmers, and seeking to reduce environmental restrictions on logging and extraction of other natural resources.
One LaMalfa’s final acts in the U.S. House was to successfully push for the reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools Act, a long-standing financial aid program for schools surrounded by untaxed federal forest land, whose budgets could not depend upon property taxes, as most public schools do. Despite broad bipartisan support, Congress let it lapse in 2023.
In an interview with The Times as he was walking onto the House floor in mid-December, LaMalfa said he was frustrated with Congress’s inability to pass even a popular bill like that reauthorization.
The Secure Rural Schools Act, he said, was a victim of a Congress in which “it’s still an eternal fight over anything fiscal.” It is “annoying,” LaMalfa said, “how hard it is to get basic things done around here.”
In a statement posted on X, California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff said he considered LaMalfa “a friend and partner” and that the congressman was “deeply committed to his community and constituents, working to make life better for those he represented.”
“Doug’s life was one of great service and he will be deeply missed,” Schiff wrote.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement called LaMalfa a “devoted public servant who deeply loved his country, his state, and the communities he represented.”
“While we often approached issues from different perspectives, he fought every day for the people of California with conviction and care,” Newsom said.
Flags at the California State Capitol in Sacramento will be flown at half-staff in honor of the congressman, according to the governor.
Before his death, LaMalfa was facing a difficult reelection bid to hold his seat. After voters approved Proposition 50 in November — aimed at giving California Democrats more seats in Congress — LaMalfa was drawn into a new district that heavily favored his likely opponent, State Sen. Mike McGuire, a Democrat who represents the state’s northwest coast.
LaMalfa’s death puts the Republican majority in Congress in further jeopardy, with a margin of just two votes to secure passage of any bill along party lines after the resignation of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday evening.
Adding to the party’s troubles, Rep. Jim Baird, a Republican from Indiana, was hospitalized on Tuesday for a car crash described by the White House as serious. While Baird is said to be stable, the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson from Louisiana, will not be able to rely on his attendance. And he has one additional caucus member – Thomas Massie of Kentucky – who has made a habit of voting against the president, bringing their margin for error down effectively to zero.
President Trump, addressing a gathering of GOP House members at the Kennedy Center, addressed the news at the start of his remarks, expressing “tremendous sorrow at the loss of a great member” and stating his speech would be made in LaMalfa’s honor.
“He was the leader of the Western caucus – a fierce champion on California water issues. He was great on water. ‘Release the water!’ he’d scream out. And a true defender of American children.”
“You know, he voted with me 100% of the time,” Trump added.
A native of Oroville, LaMalfa attended Butte College and then earned an ag-business degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He served in the California Assembly from 2002 to 2008 and the California State Senate from 2010 to 2012. Staunchly conservative, he was an early supporter of Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in California, and he also pushed for passage of the Protection of Marriage Act, Proposition 22, which banned same-sex marriage in California.
While representing California’s 1st District, LaMalfa focused largely on issues affecting rural California and other western states. In 2025, Congressman he was elected as Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, which focuses on legislation affected rural areas.
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