Perez wins 3rd District House seat, Kent refuses to concede

The race for Washington’s 3rd Congressional District has been called by the Associated Press, with Democratic candidate Marie Gluesenkamp Perez declared the winner, but her opponent, Joe Kent, hasn’t accepted defeat.

The Associated Press calls races when they analyze that the loser is mathematically unable to come back to win the race.

Pérez staves off Kent to win 3rd Congressional District seat

“If our race callers cannot definitively say a candidate has won, we do not engage in speculation,” according to the AP website, “Only when AP is fully confident a race has been won – defined most simply as the moment a trailing candidate no longer has a path to victory – will we make a call.”

A Democrat appears to have flipped southwest Washington’s District 3 seat, which has been Republican-represented since 2011.

“I am humbled, honored, and grateful. I pledge to work every day to live up to the responsibility placed on me,” Perez said on social media following the announcement. “I will defend our rights. I will protect our democracy. And I will deliver the help working and middle-class families need. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Kent is currently behind Perez by 3,268 votes as of Tuesday morning, with about 8,000 ballots left to be counted. Most of the remaining votes appear to be in Clark County, where Perez leads Kent by about 11 percentage points.

Joe Kent has so far refused to concede the hotly contested race, searching for any last-minute votes and declaring in an email to supporters, “left-wing media are trying to convince you my election is over, let me reassure you it is not.”

“I won’t concede this race because we are still very much in this fight, but I also won’t concede this race till every single legal vote is counted,” Kent said to FOX News.

While waiting for the rest of the ballots to be counted, Kent is also looking to resolve the challenged ballots, which are ballots not being counted likely due to issues surrounding proper verifications of the voter’s validity in casting their vote through their signature. Kent is offering to help voters who think their vote has been wrongfully challenged resolve the issues with their county’s elections auditor.

“That means that you submitted your ballot, but for whatever reason, usually a signature match issue, it’s been rejected,” Kent said to supporters. “If you need help with valid curing, email me at Joe@JoeKentforCongress.com. We will get a curing team to your front door or we’ll get you a ride down to your county auditor’s office.”

Sam Campbell contributed to this report