Washington’s Third Congressional District U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, has made a habit of breaking with her political party.
Now, she’s highlighting reporting from Fox News that ranks that behavior.
Fox News earlier this week released a list of the 10 members of the U.S. House of Representatives most likely to vote against policies brought to the floor by their own party.
According to the outlet’s findings, Gluesenkamp Perez ranks No. 2 on the list for bucking her party’s expectations.
The article shows Gluesenkamp Perez voted against the majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives 77 times. That means she has broken with fellow Democrats 22.5% of the time, according to the article.
The article also highlighted some of her highest profile breaks with her party, including supporting the censure of Democrat Al Green from Texas, approving a bill condemning socialism, supporting the Laken-Riley Act and most recently leading an effort to condemn the actions of Democrat Chuy Garcia from Illinois.
Shortly after the publication of the article, Gluesenkamp Perez’s campaign team sent out one of its first news releases of the election cycle, highlighting the congresswoman’s reputation as a “maverick.”
In the news release, Gluesenkamp Perez’s campaign pointed to the recent article as evidence of the representative’s commitment to representing her district in Southwest Washington.
“Gluesenkamp Perez has a rock-solid record of putting Southwest Washington ahead of partisan priorities,” reads the statement.
According to the release, Gluesenkamp Perez was also ranked the 12th most bipartisan member of the house in 2023 by the non-partisan Lugar Center and had the highest bipartisanship ranking among federal lawmakers from Washington state.
According to the Fox News article, Gluesenkamp Perez was one of six Democrats to make the list and came in six votes shy of the No. 1 spot. Congressman Henry Cuellar took the No. 1 ranking, voting against the majority of Democrats in the chamber a whopping 87 times.
Gluesenkamp Perez is seeking a third term as congresswoman after twice defeating Republican Joe Kent. Her strongest opponent in the current cycle appears to be state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, though she also faces a challenge from within her party in Brent Hennrich, who has criticized the incumbent for her breaks with the Democrats.
