Red-district conqueror wants Dems to reassess

It’s not always fun to say I told you so.

For two years, Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat from a rural, red district in Washington State, has been criticizing her party for being too dismissive of working-class voters.

That message appears to have helped Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez, long considered perhaps the most vulnerable Democrat in the House, defy the odds in this week’s election. Even with President-elect Donald J. Trump at the top of the ticket and winning her district for the third cycle in a row, she appears on track to beat the same candidate she faced two years ago, the far-right Republican and former Green Beret Joe Kent, by a larger margin.

She declared victory in a statement on Thursday night after a newspaper in her district called the election for her, although The Associated Press had yet to do so.

Preliminary results showed her outrunning Vice President Kamala Harris by seven percentage points in two of the reddest counties in her district, including the rural timber county of Wahkiakum.

Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez, 36, who owns an auto shop now run by her husband, has angered progressives for sometimes crossing party lines, like when she voted with Republicans to repeal President Biden’s student loan forgiveness initiative. She argued that it didn’t do much for her district, where most people don’t have college degrees.

On Thursday, Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez spoke on the phone from her home in Washougal, Wash., while her toddler son napped. She discussed what lessons she draws from her own performance amid her party’s losses.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

NYT: You were considered the most vulnerable House Democrat, and yet you are set to win by a fairly comfortable margin in a very difficult political environment. How did that happen, and what can Democrats learn from you?

MGP: I just refused to let this race be nationalized. It’s not about the message. It’s about my loyalty to my community. The messenger is the message in a lot of ways. My awareness of my community has been durable, and it’s reflective in my vote record. That is a huge asset.

The fundamental mistake people make is condescension. A lot of elected officials get calloused to the ways that they’re disrespecting people.

I truly love case work. The other week we had a case, somebody was marked as deceased by the I.R.S., their tax returns kept getting flagged. I got to bring someone back from the dead. We’re at like 1,600 cases and $3 million returned to constituents.

NYT: How do you think Democratic lawmakers have been disrespecting people?

MGP: I was talking to a woman who runs one of the largest labor and delivery wards. She said 40 percent of the babies there have at least one parent addicted to fentanyl. What is empathetic — to tell them that’s their problem, or to take border security seriously?

People are putting their groceries on their credit card. No one is listening to anything else you say if you try to talk them out of their lived experiences with data points from some economists.

NYT: Do you feel like saying “I told you so” to your colleagues who somehow failed to appeal to those lived experiences?

MGP: Sometimes I feel like people just can’t hear me, so I’m not going to bother saying it to some of these people. They’ve got to come to Jesus; I can’t make them do that. I’m very focused on here and loyal to here.

What I really hope happens is we change the kinds of candidates we’re supporting.

I hope that other normal people see me and decide they can run, too. There’s not one weird trick that’s going to fix the Democratic Party. It is going to take parents of young kids, people in rural communities, people in the trades running for office and being taken seriously.

NYT: As a woman who has highlighted your own story of visiting an abortion clinic when you had a miscarriage in your second trimester, how do you feel about the re-election of Donald J. Trump?

MGP: I guess I’m still wrapping my head around where to go and what to do. But even when the national current changes, we still have all the same issues here.

There was a very surreal moment at the end of the campaign and the ballot boxes in my district had just been bombed. I came home, and my husband showed me a video of this herd of elk on our property. One was missing a leg. It’s this disease, chronic wasting disease, that turns them into zombies. There are real problems here, and you guys think the solution is bombing ballot boxes? Get a grip.

NYT: What were your thoughts about Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign?

MGP: When Harris first came out, I was open to talking with her. I know she called a lot of my colleagues; she never called me. I’ve had one interaction with Harris, at her Naval Observatory Christmas party.

I’m not super comfortable at that kind of thing. I’d had a couple of beers, and I noticed that almost all of the garlands were plastic. My district grows a hell of a lot of Christmas trees. I was strong-armed into taking a picture. I said, “Madam Vice President, we grow those where I live.” She just walked away from me. There was kind of an eye roll, maybe. My thinking was, it does matter to people where I live. It’s the respect, the cultural regard for farmers. I didn’t feel like she understood what I was trying to say.

NYT: Congress may be a bleak place for Democrats next year. Do you think you’ll be able to get anything done?

MGP: I don’t see the Right to Repair Act [a bill that would require that farm equipment manufacturers provide the tools, parts and instructions needed for consumers to repair the equipment themselves] as particularly partisan, or advocating for shop class in junior high as partisan. I have no idea what it will be like, but I have an obligation to keep working. A lot of people before me sacrificed for us to be able to have our own business, build a home, own land, so what are you going to do with the gift that you have?

NYT: Were you surprised by the election results?

MGP: I got yelled at every time I tried to say something about that. By everyone. I think I’m at the platinum level of bipartisanship, where I’ve gotten threats of physical violence from both sides. Weighing in on national politics is not my focus and not my job.

NYT: Do you think the Democratic Party will be forced to change after this crushing election cycle?

MGP: It’s a lot easier to look outward, to blame and demonize other people, instead of looking in the mirror and seeing what we can do. It is not fun to feel accountability. It requires a mental flexibility that’s painful. So who knows?

Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times. She writes features and profiles, with a recent focus on House Republican leadership.