Dim common sense in the end? Newly elected congresswoman from Washington, who runs an auto repair shop and is a proud gun owner who criticizes her party for losing touch with the working class.
- Marie Glusenkamp-Perez said her party had a class problem
- I deplored the number of people who disrespected people without a college degree
- She said that running a small business means she understands the average American
The new Democratic congresswoman who owns guns in Washington and runs an auto repair shop has criticized her party for losing touch with the working class.
Mary Glusenkamp-Perez, who caused one of the midterm election upsets by winning a district twice held by Donald Trump, said her party had a class problem and failed to represent ordinary Americans. .
She launched a scathing critique of how her party “patronizes” working and deaf people on money issues.
“How is it (whistle) that we don’t respect or listen to people until they get a college degree?” Glusenkamp-Perez told former Barack Obama staffer Jon Favreau on the Pod Save America podcast.
The 34-year-old mom talked about how she ran an auto repair shop across the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, Dean, which meant she had the same issues as the working-class voters she represented.
Newly elected Washington Democratic congresswoman Marie Glusenkamp-Perez has criticized her party for failing to represent working-class Americans.
The mother, 34, runs an auto repair shop with her husband, Dean (above), in Portland, Oregon
She said that running a small business means she understands the problems working Americans face
But she said Democrats have largely failed to pick candidates from the “world’s mediator.”
She added, “We need more actors who work for a living rather than those who make a living from politics.”
Her party now represents 9 of the 10 richest districts in America.
The median household income in the Gluesenkamp-Perez area, 3rd in SW Washington, is $79,000 — slightly above the national average, but slightly below Washington state’s figure of $82,000.
When asked about how she achieved her victory against the odds in a traditionally Republican district, she said, ‘I’ve had no training on how to look smart and polished, and have to be myself.
I really think what people want is normalcy. We want people who pay their taxes who are on all the daycare waiting lists and trying to navigate the world, like running a small business…
When we are able to communicate that, that is how we can be relevant to the rural communities that work for a living. “Things will not get better in America until we start electing a Congress that looks a lot like America.”
The congresswoman said running her garage meant she was able to talk about issues like climate change from where people could relate to her.
“When it’s 117 degrees outside, I can’t work,” she said. I can’t make mortgage payments. Democrats often talk about climate justice in these abstract, unrelated terms.
Gluesenkamp Perez was speaking to former Barack Obama staffer Jon Favreau on the Pod Save America podcast
Republican Jaime Herrera Butler previously held SW Washington’s 3rd District
Butler failed to pass the state’s primary after she angered conservatives by voting to impeach Trump after his supporters attacked the US Capitol.
“You have to talk about the actual reality of people who work in the craft, who can’t make money.”
“There is a tendency to treat people who work for a living and explain their ideas in inappropriate ways,” she added.
Glusenkamp-Perez, who describes herself as an independent-minded Democrat, beat out Joe Kent, a far-right leader of the “America First” Green Beret party endorsed by former President Donald Trump, after incumbent Republican President Jaime Herrera Beutler admitted trying to reinstate elected.
The district, which narrowly voted for Trump in 2020, has been represented for more than a decade by Beutler. But she failed to pass the primaries in the state after angering conservatives by voting to impeach Trump after his supporters attacked the US Capitol.
Gluesenkamp Perez supports abortion access and policies to counter climate change, but has also described herself as a gun owner who opposes assault rifle bans.
She said owning a gun is “part of life in rural America”.
