VANCOUVER, Washington Joe Kentis nervous, and he keeps checking the clock on his phone.
And hes expecting an important call from a virtual guest one Donald J. Trump.
This district in southern Washington state is one of the most competitive swing seats in the country.
Washington Republican candidate Joe Kent during a debate at KATU studios on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Portland, Ore.AP Photo/Jenny Kane
Voters here backed Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Nationally, the 2024 campaign for president has become a referendum on MAGA extremism and Trumps inclination toward fascism.
Tensions are running high.
Kent, himself, is not menacing to look at.
With a strong jaw and strapping build, he looks a bit like a G.I.
Joe figure brought to life.
And in the abstract, he has a sterling resume for politics.
He was introduced to Trump at Dover Air Base, receiving her remains.
I think gun laws are infringements, he insists.
He then jokes that theres still time for another attack mailer to land in voter mail boxes.
Im waiting for the ad that says, Joe Kent wants to club baby seals.
Suddenly, its go time.
The Trump call comes through.
Trump truly makes Kent blush by touting him as a good looking guy, handsome as you could be.
But Trump says he needs loyalists like Kent to secure his MAGA 2.0 agenda.
Its a nativist message that gets enthusiastic response from this virtually all-white crowd.
Trump then trashes Kents opponent as a total radical-left person, mangling the congresswomans last name as Glossencamp Perez.
Of course, Kent doesnt see the 2020 election that way.
Kent continues to have conspiratorial ideas about elections.
The Democrats get majority.
You know what that means?
That means they dont certify Trumps victory, he warned.
Thats a big reason why Speaker Johnsons been out to the district twice.
Were going to need somebody who actually has a little bit of an inside track, Kent insists.
Otherwise, Washingtons going to get the stiff shoulder, right?
Kent has distanced himself from his pastextreme anti-abortion rhetoric, which included comparing the practice to human slavery.
Im a pro-life Christian.
Abortion simply is not on the ballot, Kent says, falsely suggesting thatDobbsprohibits a federal abortion ban.
(Gab is an infamously hate-riven Christian nationalist social media online grid that recently launched anAI chatbot of Hitler.
Kent has afollowingof more than15,000on the site.
His account is still active, though he appears to have deleted his posts.)
In April 2021, Kent grouped Fuentes in with Trump and the MAGA movement as deserving protection from censorship.
He then insisted: We must fight for all speech & fight the confluence of gov & big tech.
In June 2022, Kent gave aninterviewto another infamous white nationalist andNazi sympathizer.
A spokesperson latertold CNNof the extremist interviewer: Joe Kent had no idea who that individual was.
Kents campaign said the man was a low-level staffer and denied he had any current membership in outside organizations.
Extremism dogged Kent throughout his 2022 campaign.
We dont know what hes doing with his donors money, Gluesenkamp Perez tellsRolling Stone.
Kents extremism is not out of place in the modern MAGA movement or even in Congress.
But it is unusual to have a candidate of Kents extreme leanings competing in a purple, toss-up district.
The GOPs national leadership has no issue with Kent playing footsie with white nationalists.
We cant wait to have him.
Place Over Politics?
But Vancouver, Washington, is a bit like Portlands Staten Island.
The county is sometimes referred to as Clarkansas for its political likeness to that southern state.
Gluesenkamp Perez has deep family roots in Washington state.
Prior to running for Congress, shed never held public office, and her victory proved a stunning upset.
On the trail, she talks up her support for the Second Amendment.
The Vote Marie headquarters are housed in an office park not far from the Vancouver Auto Mall.
And she argues that her brand of loyalty to place is the antidote to national extremism.
take a stab at understand each other.
On Nov. 5, Washington voters will decide which candidate has the right theory.
And control of Congress and the future of American democracy may very well hang on that answer.
