Trump-Backed Braun Advances to November in Washington’s 3rd District

Trump celebrates state Sen. John Braun advancing past Washington's top-two primary to challenge Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in one of the closest House races of the cycle.

First Published: August 5, 2026, 8:59 AM ETUpdates (1): August 5, 2026, 8:59 AM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald J. Trump celebrated Republican state Sen. John Braun advancing to the November general election in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, a battleground that could help decide control of the U.S. House.

Braun, a Navy veteran who runs an emergency-vehicle manufacturing plant and has served in the state Senate since 2012, beat seven other candidates to reach the runoff alongside two-term Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, according to cbsnews.com. Washington uses a nonpartisan top-two primary, sending the two leading vote-getters to the fall ballot regardless of party.

“That’s correct,” Braun said in a recent interview with local station KGW when asked to confirm that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, a break from Trump’s position, according to cbsnews.com.

Here is the full post on truthsocial: “REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR WA-03 JOHN BRAUN WINS! ENDORSED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP! TRUMP VANCE MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” on August 5, 2026 at 12:05 AM ET.

This is Trump’s 3rd message released today, and the last post was 0 minutes ago, and it is not part of a thread. On average, Trump produces 18 posts per day since his inauguration on January 20, 2025. The move fits a broader pattern in Trump’s recent messaging, with 97 of his 434 posts over the last 30 days classified as Elections posts.

The stakes reach beyond the district. The race is one of the closest-watched House contests this cycle and will help decide who controls the lower chamber early next year, according to cbsnews.com. A Braun win would flip a seat Democrats have held since 2023, while a Gluesenkamp Perez victory would defend a rare Democratic hold in Trump-friendly rural terrain.

The district sits in the southwestern corner of Washington and carries a distinct political split. It was one of 13 districts that voted for Trump in 2024 while also electing a Democrat to the House, according to cbsnews.com. Forecasters disagree on the tilt. The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics rates the race as leans Democratic, while the Cook Political Report rates it a tossup, according to cbsnews.com.

A social media post by President Donald J. Trump is displayed on Truth Social on 08/05/2026.

Gluesenkamp Perez has built her appeal by breaking with her party. She voted against Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, backed military support for Israel and supported an earlier version of Trump’s voting regulations bill, now known as the SAVE America Act, according to cbsnews.com. She twice defeated Joe Kent, who later became Trump’s counterterrorism chief before resigning in protest over the Iran war, according to cbsnews.com.

Braun has not marched in lockstep with the president who endorsed him. He criticized Trump’s sweeping tariffs, saying the “broad, sometimes indiscriminate use of tariffs can be very harmful,” including on his own manufacturing business, according to cbsnews.com. He allowed that import taxes have appropriate uses, such as “when you’re talking about some of the threats from China and from Russia,” according to cbsnews.com.

For voters far from Washington, the contest matters because a handful of swing seats like this one will settle whether Trump’s agenda faces a friendly or hostile House majority. The outcome shapes tax, spending and immigration votes that reach every household.

This has happened before. Gluesenkamp Perez first captured the seat in 2022 by defeating Kent, then held it again in 2024 even as Trump carried the district at the presidential level, according to ballotpedia.org. The pattern of ticket-splitting has defined the district for two straight cycles.

Voters will make the next decision at the general election on November 3, 2026, when the two nominees face off. Trump endorsed Braun in April, calling Gluesenkamp Perez “a true radical left extremist,” according to cbsnews.com.

Split-ticket districts have upended House math before. In 1994, Republicans flipped 54 seats to seize the chamber after decades in the minority, toppling a Democratic majority that had held power for 40 years. Speaker-in-waiting figures who misread rural discontent lost their footholds for a generation. Nearly identical crosscurrents surfaced in 2010, when 63 seats changed hands and swept out incumbents who had strayed from their districts’ leanings. The lesson for lawmakers who share Gluesenkamp Perez’s tightrope has been consistent: the districts that split their tickets punish those who forget which way the wind blows.