Kristina Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (born June 4, 1988) is an American politician and businesswoman. A member of the Democratic Party, she has been the United States representative for

Washington's 3rd congressional district Washington's 3rd congressional district encompasses the southernmost portion of Western Washington. It includes the counties of Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, and Skamania; as well as a small portion of southern Thurston county. ...

since 2023. She serves as a co-chair of the

Blue Dog Coalition The Blue Dog Coalition, commonly known as the Blue Dogs or Blue Dog Democrats, is a Congressional caucus, caucus of Political moderate, moderate members from the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the United States House of ...

Early life and career

Gluesenkamp Perez was born on June 4, 1988. Her father immigrated from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, while her mother's family has roots in

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. Her great-great-grandfather was a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

foreman in the state, and her grandfather, Herbert Gilmore, was a carpenter in

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. Bellevue or Belle Vue may refer to: Places Australia * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales Canada * Bellevue, Alberta * Bellevue, Newfoundlan ...

. Her parents met at

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington, United States. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, s ...

and then moved to

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

where Gluesenkamp Perez was raised. Her father was a pastor at an evangelical church. One of four children, she grew up in a family where her mother

home-schooled Homeschooling or home schooling (American English), also known as home education or elective home education (EHE) (British English), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted ...

her children for their early education years. After high school, Gluesenkamp Perez initially attended

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a required course of study, work an on-campus j ...

and then transferred to

Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. She worked in a cafe and at a manufacturing plant to pay for tuition. Gluesenkamp Perez graduated from college in 2012 with a degree in economics. She met her husband, Dean Gluesenkamp, while working as a bicycle mechanic. They opened an

automobile repair shop An automobile repair shop (also known regionally as a garage or a workshop) is an establishment where automobiles are repaired by auto mechanics and technicians. The customer interface is typically a Customer service representative, service adv ...

and moved to rural

Skamania County Skamania County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,036. The county seat and largest incorporated city is Stevenson, although the Carson River Valley CDP is more populous. Ska ...

in Washington, where they built their own home. Gluesenkamp Perez entered politics in 2016 when she ran for Skamania County

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

but lost, receiving 32.8% of the vote in the primary and 46.3% in the general election. She supported

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

in the

2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for President in the 2016 United States president ...

. In 2018, Gluesenkamp Perez ran for the position of Skamania County Public Utility District commissioner in 2018 but was unsuccessful. From 2020 to 2022, she served on the

Washington State Democratic Party The Washington State Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Seattle. It is also commonly referred to as ...

executive committee. Since 2018, prior to her election to Congress, she was a member of the Underwood Soil and Water District Conservation board of supervisors.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2022

In 2022, Gluesenkamp Perez ran for the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

to represent

. She advanced from Washington's

nonpartisan blanket primary A nonpartisan primary, top-two primary, or jungle primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of political party. This distinguishes them from partisan primaries, w ...

in which candidates from all parties are listed on the same primary ballot, and the top two finishers, regardless of party, move on to the general election. Gluesenkamp Perez finished first in the primary with 31% of the vote, while Republican Joe Kent came in second, narrowly defeating the incumbent, Republican

Jaime Herrera Beutler Jaime Lynn Herrera Beutler ( ; born November 3, 1978) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2023. The district is in southwestern Washington, lying across the Columbia River from Oregon's Portland met ...

, by 0.5%. Another Republican, Heidi St. John, finished fourth with 16.0%, and the second Democratic candidate, Davy Ray, garnered 2.2%. Before the primary, Brent Hennrich, a Democrat who had led in two early polls, withdrew from the race and endorsed Gluesenkamp Perez. The general election's rating varied from "Lean R", according to ''The Cook Political Report'', to "Solid R" in ''

FiveThirtyEight ''FiveThirtyEight'', also rendered as ''538'', was an American website that focused on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States. The website, which took its name from the number of electors in the U ...

''s House of Representatives forecast. ''FiveThirtyEight'' estimated that Gluesenkamp Perez had a 2% chance of winning the general election over Kent, and was expected to receive 43.6% of the popular vote. She led in one of two polls and was trailing in the other; both were within the margin of error. Her subsequent narrow victory received widespread national attention, with ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...

'' calling it "the most stunning political upset in the country this year", and "a microcosm of the midterms". Kent conceded on December 21, following a

recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

2024

In 2024, Gluesenkamp Perez defeated Kent in a rematch. As both a freshman and a representative of a crossover district, the 3rd district received national interest from both sides, and so Gluesenkamp Perez was the only crossover freshman Democrat to be re-elected.

Committee assignments

* Committee on Agriculture ** Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development ** Subcommittee on Forestry * Committee on Small Business ** Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Regulations ** Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Supply Chains (Ranking Member)

Caucus memberships

(co-chair) *

Problem Solvers Caucus The Problem Solvers Caucus is a group in the United States House of Representatives that has included members equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, with the Caucus' stated goal of fostering bipartisan cooperation on key policy issues ...

Congressional Hispanic Caucus The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is an organization of 38 Democratic members of the United States Congress of Hispanic and Latino descent. The Caucus focuses on issues affecting Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The CHC was fo ...

Political positions

Gluesenkamp Perez campaigned as a moderate Democrat, supporting both abortion rights and Second Amendment rights. She emphasized her focus on small businesses, job training, local issues such as the

timber industry Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

, and expressed opposition to political extremism. Following her election, she has taken a role as a co-chair of the

and has joined the bipartisan

. Her record has been criticized by pro-choice activists and student debt activists. In 2025, Gluesenkamp Perez was among 10 Democrats who joined House Republicans in voting to censure

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), known professionally as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer. He is best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Tired of ...

for disrupting the

2025 Donald Trump speech to a joint session of Congress Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States, addressed a joint session of the United States Congress on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. It was his first public address before a joint session during his second term. Like a State of the Union A ...

Abortion

Gluesenkamp Perez supports abortion access, citing her personal experience having a

dilation and curettage Dilation (or dilatation) may refer to: Physiology or medicine * Cervical dilation, the widening of the cervix in childbirth, miscarriage etc. * Coronary dilation, or coronary reflex * Dilation and curettage, the opening of the cervix and s ...

procedure after a

miscarriage Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion, is an end to pregnancy resulting in the loss and expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the womb before it can fetal viability, survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks ...

KGW KGW (channel 8) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Jefferson Street in southwestern Portland, and its transmitter is located in the city's ...

described her support for abortion rights as "a tenet of her campaign". In January 2023, she voted against the

Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act is a proposed United States law that would penalize healthcare practitioners who fail to provide care for an infant that is born-alive from an abortion attempt. It was introduced in the , , and C ...

, which would criminalize healthcare providers in failing to provide care for an infant born alive after an abortion attempt.

Gun control

Gluesenkamp Perez opposes an outright ban on

assault weapon In the United States, ''assault weapon'' is a controversial term applied to different kinds of firearms. There is no clear, consistent definition. It can include semi-automatic firearms with a detachable magazine, a pistol grip, and sometime ...

s but supports raising the age required to purchase an assault weapon from 18 to 21. She voted against a bill to repeal a

pistol brace A gunstock or often simply stock, the back portion of which is also known as a shoulder stock, a buttstock, or simply a butt, is a part of a long gun that provides structural support, to which the barrel, action, and firing mechanism are attache ...

ban in 2023. The ban was ruled unconstitutional a year later.

Immigration

Gluesenkamp Perez supports the reinstatement of Title 42 expulsions and the Remain in Mexico policy to curtail illegal immigration. In July 2024, she cast one of five Democratic votes to condemn the Biden administration's handling of the United States border. In January 2025, Gluesenkamp Perez was one of 48 Democrats to vote for the

Laken Riley Act The Laken Riley Act is a United States law that requires the detention, without Bail, bond, of Illegal immigration to the United States, illegal immigrants admitting to, charged with, or convicted of theft-related crimes, assaulting a police of ...

, which requires

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the Un ...

to detain undocumented immigrants charged with theft. She later became one of 46 House Democrats who joined all Republicans to vote for a Senate-amended version of the bill.

Inflation

Gluesenkamp Perez blames

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

on companies outsourcing jobs, and states that is the top issue affecting voters in her district. She has called for both increased usage of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the short term and a long-term increase in the number of jobs available in green industries.

Infrastructure

Gluesenkamp Perez has emphasized her role in securing $2.1 billion in federal funding to rebuild the

Interstate Bridge The Interstate Bridge (also Columbia River Interstate Bridge, I-5 Bridge, Portland-Vancouver Interstate Bridge, Vancouver-Portland Bridge) is a pair of nearly identical steel vertical-lift, Parker through-truss bridges that carry Interstate 5 ...

, which carries

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...

across the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

. Citing the economic losses experienced in her district from landslides, she co-sponsored the renewal of the National Landslide Preparedness Act in 2024.

Military and veterans

On July 2023, Gluesenkamp Perez voted to pass the annual

National Defense Authorization Act The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is any of a series of United States federal laws specifying the annual budget and expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense. The first NDAA was passed in 1961. The U.S. Congress oversees the de ...

that included provisions to bar Pentagon spending for abortion and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

surgeries. She defended her vote by saying the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

would "clean up" the bill. In early 2024, Gluesenkamp Perez introduced the Rural Veterans Transportation to Care Act that would expand transportation to veterans attempting to access medical care. In July, after a letter she had sent earlier received no response, she hand delivered a petition to the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) requesting the reopening of a VA clinic in Lewis County. The prior clinic was closed in 2021 and replaced with a limited mobile care unit, requiring approximately 3,000 veterans in the county to travel out of the area to

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...

Right-to-repair

In May 2023, Gluesenkamp Perez helped introduce the REPAIR Act and the SMART Act, two bipartisan right-to-repair bills that seek to require auto manufacturers to share parts, tools, and data needed for repairs at lower costs.

Student debt

Gluesenkamp Perez voted against a

student debt Student debt refers to the debt incurred by an individual to pay for education-related expenses. This debt is most commonly assumed to pay for tertiary education, such as university. The amount loaned or the loan agreement is often referred to as ...

relief plan proposed by the White House in 2023. She was one of only two House Democrats to do so, along with

Jared Golden Jared Forrest Golden (born July 25, 1982) is an American politician and United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps veteran serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Maine's 2nd congressional district since 2018 ...

of Maine. At the time, she said that "expansions of student debt forgiveness need to be matched dollar-for-dollar with investments in career ndtechnical education. I can't support the first without the other. The severe shortage of trades workers needs to be seen ndtreated as a national priority."

Voting rights and electoral reform

Gluesenkamp Perez believes that

vote by mail Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system. In an el ...

is safe and has refuted unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud among mail-in ballots. In July 2024, she was one of only five out of 198 Democrats who voted with the Republican majority to pass the SAVE Act (H.R.8281, Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act), which would require those registering to vote to provide documentary proof of United States citizenship. In 2024, Gluesenkamp Perez, along with Jared Golden, proposed a bipartisan committee to consider electoral reforms, such as

multi-member districts An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provid ...

with

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

, increasing the number of members in the House of Representatives and establishing independent redistricting commissions. On April 10, 2025, Gluesenkamp Perez was one of only four Democrats who joined all of the Republicans in the House in voting in favor of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, commonly known as the SAVE Act. The bill places strict requirements to prove American citizenship in order to vote in federal elections.

Personal life

Gluesenkamp Perez lives near

Stevenson, Washington Stevenson is a city along the Columbia River in Skamania County, Washington, United States. It is the county seat of Skamania County and part of the Portland metropolitan area. The city also lies within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic A ...

, in

. She is married to Dean Gluesenkamp, and has one child. They also have a dog named Uma Furman. Gluesenkamp Perez is a

nondenominational Christian Non-denominational Christianity (or nondenominational Christianity) consists of churches, and individual Christians, which typically distance themselves from the confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian communities by not formally aligni ...

Electoral history

2022

2024

Notes

References

External links

Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
official U.S. House website
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez for Congress
campaign website * * , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gluesenkamp Perez, Marie 1988 births 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives American politicians of Mexican descent American Protestants Centrism in the United States Christians from Texas Christians from Washington (state) Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Washington (state) Female members of the United States House of Representatives Hispanic and Latino American members of the United States Congress Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Living people People from Harris County, Texas People from Skamania County, Washington Protestants from Washington (state) Reed College alumni Washington (state) Democrats Women in Washington (state) politics

Early life and career

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2022

2024

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Political positions

Abortion

Gun control

Immigration

Inflation

Infrastructure

Military and veterans

Right-to-repair

Student debt

Voting rights and electoral reform

Personal life

Electoral history

2022

2024

See also

Notes

References

External links