Joe Kent vs Marie Gluesenkamp Perez: A year covering the race that exposes America’s toxic political divide

The battle for Washington’s third congressional district that offers a snapshot of the state of the nation. Andrew Buncombe had a front-row seat

Donald Trump loomed over the battle for Washington’s third congressinoal district (Marie Perez for Congress/Joe Kent for Congress/Getty)

In an office above the auto repair shop she owns with her husband, Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez is worrying about a stack of bills.

Later that day, the 34-year-old’s victory in the state of Washington’s third congressional district will be formally certified, officially marking her against-the-odds win over Joe Kent, a Trump-backed “America First” hardliner who believed he should be going to Congress, to push for Joe Biden’s impeachment.

In January, Perez will start in the House of Representatives, a new arrival amid a large field of “freshmen”. She will endure the eight-hour commute transporting her from one Washington to the other, and plunge into the Arc-light of a national political scene that has rarely felt so toxic and torn.