WASHINGTON — Joe Kent, a far-right Republican and former Army Special Forces officer, ran for Congress two years ago as a guerilla fighter. He denied that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, supported the January 6, 2021 indicted rioters, attacked Congress, and supported a nationwide ban on abortion.
He lost.
Now Kent is closing in on a rematch against the Democrat who defeated him in a contested district in southern Washington, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp in Perez, with a starkly different tone, highlighting local issues and her personal story.
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“My campaign and I have been talking to local leaders, former volunteers and activists to get advice,” Kent said in a campaign video, sharing what he learned during his first campaign and is doing differently this time around. “I’m expanding the focus of my campaign to local challenges,” he adds, and “aiming more for a wider electorate.”
His is just one of more than a dozen congressional races this year, some of them in critical battlegrounds, that offer voters the same choices they had in 2022. There are both Republican and Democratic challengers seeking to unseat the incumbent president. lost at least once before.
These close candidates return to the campaign trail with increased name recognition, established fundraising networks, battle-tested campaign tools and lessons from their failed bids that they hope will help them win this time around. Their success or failure will help determine who takes control of the tightly divided parliament in November.
In California, Rep. John Duarte defeated his Democratic challenger, Adam Gray, by just a few hundred votes two years ago in one of the nation’s closest House races. The victory was a key factor for the Republicans in helping them take control of the House. This year, Democrats are aggressively targeting the seat again.
Like other rematch contenders, Gray is seeking to turn the office into Congress’ fault rather than benefit. He seeks to tie Duarte, who has worked to separate himself from the Republican brand, to the extremist elements of his party.
“There’s a reason you haven’t seen much of John Duarte,” Gray said in a video at the start of his campaign. “Because he went to Washington and it wasn’t long before he became part of the problem.”
He accused Duarte of voting to cut Social Security and Medicare — even though the congressman did not — and “restricting a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.”
This is an apparent reference to Duarte’s vote last year in favor of an agriculture spending bill that included restrictions on the abortion pill; the operation ultimately failed. He also voted for a defense bill that would have restricted abortions in the military, a provision that was later rejected and that Duarte had opposed adding to the legislation, one of only two House Republicans to do so.
In Connecticut, George Logan, a former Republican state senator, is running as a compromise candidate, using social media to offer an opposing view of his Democratic opponent, Rep. Jahana Hayes, whom he has called “the most partisan member of Connecticut’s congressional delegation.” Hayes often points to his ability to work across the board and help secure legislative wins, including funding for veterans, during both the Trump and Biden administrations.
And in Texas, along the southern border, former Rep. Mayra Flores, a far-right Republican backed by Donald Trump who is running about six months after the 2022 special election, has sought to harness voter concerns about immigration. He used Biden’s February visit to the region to attack his opponent’s policies.
“No amount of campaigning can fix the disaster they’ve caused,” Flores said of Democrat Vicente Gonzalez Jr., who unseated him in 2022. “Only electing new leadership in November can.”
Congressional rematches have had mixed results in recent years. In 2022, only one repeat challenger won, with Republican Tom Kean Jr. defeating Democrat Tom Malinowski in his second attempt in northern New Jersey. In 2020, three Republican challengers won in reruns: Representative Young Kim of California, Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, and Yvette Herrell of New Mexico.
But Herrell lost after just one term and now finds himself hoping the tables will turn in his favor again in November when he faces Rep. Gabriel Vasquez, the Democrat who defeated him in 2022.
On the Democratic side, national campaign groups see a handful of rematches as critical in their bid to take control of the House. They argue that their candidates will fare better a year from now, when presidential elections boost voter turnout, especially after voters are angered by a congressional session marked by dysfunction and historically low productivity.
“There is tremendous buyer’s remorse among voters who have seen House Republicans fail spectacularly to lower costs or address pocketbook problems,” said Viet Shelton, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Rep. Richard Hudson, RN.C., who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, also expressed confidence in his party’s chances in key runoffs, including Kent’s. He said the party’s House campaign team would “work closely with Joe to make sure voters in Southwest Washington know about his inspiring life story” and that he was “confident they will elect him” this time.
While first-year incumbents are generally easier to fire, some Democrats are turning their attention to more established Republicans.
Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Republicans who represent swing districts won by Biden in 2020, will again face Democratic challengers Tony Vargas in Nebraska and Ashley Ehasz in Pennsylvania.
Bacon has a successful record of defeating repeated challengers. She beat Democrat Kara Eastman in 2018 and 2020, improving her margins a second time.
Rep. Ken Calvert, a Republican who has served in Congress for three decades and had never faced a tough re-election race until last term, will again face Will Rollins, the Democratic former federal prosecutor who challenged him in 2022. Rollins, who is openly gay. , is hoping this is the year he can take advantage of the Southern California district’s redrawn boundaries — which added the liberal stronghold of Palm Springs, which residents claim is America’s gayest city — to unseat the longtime and staunchly conservative incumbent. .
Some candidates in the runoff said they were encouraged to take another chance after hearing from supporters energized by how close they were to winning.
Kirsten Engel, a former Democratic state senator running for an open seat in Arizona in 2022, lost by less than 6,000 votes to Juan Ciscoman, a Republican she is challenging again.
“You know, voters, supporters and people around the country were like, ‘Damn, that was really close,'” he said in an interview, referring to his loss two years ago. “Only 5,232 votes — but who’s counting.”
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