Sen. John Braun – Is Southwest Washington ready to flip red?

A new poll shows Washington State Senate Minority Leader John Braun with a narrow lead in Washington's 3rd Congressional District. Could voters be ready for a change?

John Braun, a 31-year Navy veteran and Washington State Senate Minority Leader, joins the show to discuss his campaign against Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the latest polling, and the issues he believes will decide the race.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson Show. It's First Amendment Friday, and it's a pleasure to be with you here. I can't wait until we get to the point where we've actually got a conservative Republican back in Washington State's third congressional district. Right now, it's occupied by Marie Glusen Camperez. But it seems she is having real trouble, not just in her own district, but even among her Democrat Party. And she is, as far as I'm concerned, a full-blown phony when it comes to the way she presents herself to voters and to citizens. So I'm anxious to see John Braun replace her. He is currently the Washington State Senate Minority Leader, 31-year Navy veteran, now running to flip Washington's third congressional district and unseat Marie Glues and Camperez. John, welcome back to the program.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Well, thanks for having me on, Lars.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

You bet. Sounds like Marie Glues and Camperez has a real problem. She's only getting 69% of Democrats to support her, and she's viewed unfavorably by about 50% of the voters.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah, she is definitely underwater and in trouble, and we're working hard uh at the same time uh to build support across the district. We're getting, frankly, a terrific response. We're out there uh spending our time meeting voters where they're at, listening to their challenges and and working hard uh to present uh policy solutions that would make their lives better, their families' lives better, their communities better. So I think we're on a we got momentum. We're on a good we're on a good path. We've got to just keep working.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Yeah, I'd agree with you. Now, John, let me ask, would it be hard for me to get you to take a position on Washington's so-called and badly and inaccurately named millionaires tax?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Uh my position has been uh extraordinarily clear from the uh, well, even before they dropped the bill, this is the wrong thing for Washington. It's a wrong thing for for Washington individually, for families, for communities. It's just take taken us in a in a in a direction that's going to be, frankly, devastating for our economy and therefore individual Washingtans across the state. I couldn't have been more clear over the last six months that this is a this is a bad idea, and I'm I'm fully supporting the people repealing it uh in November.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Well, and and that makes me wonder why is it so hard to get Marie Glusen Camperez to take a position? I mean, it's either she supports it and thinks an income tax, even though rejected by voters ten different times in Washington State is the right thing, or it's not the right thing, and yet nobody seems to be able to get her to take a position right or left on that.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

No, this is her MO when when she uh under she understands that it's it's politically unpopular, uh it's unnecessary, it's unconstitutional, uh, but she uh is you know, she's a you know, I I I don't know where she is any better than anybody else. I mean, she has historically uh been very supportive of additional taxes, so it wouldn't surprise me if she supports it. But she's savvy enough to know that it, you know, to to tell voters what she thinks might be a political liability, so she's just trying to hide from the issue.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Well, and and that seems odd to, I mean, because I understand she wants to have the support of unions and unionized workers. The unionized workers view the new so-called millionaires tax as as their paychecks, and they want to hang on to that. But for the voters to accept that she won't take a position one way or another really seems very, very deceptive. And I would think that she'd understand that people will see that as deceptive, but maybe that's why she's so unpopular right now.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah, I I I think that uh I I I don't have special knowledge how she what she's thinking, I guess, so I'll be careful there. But uh, she seems to be uh politically acute to unpopular ideas, but she she just can't seem to bring herself to say, no, this is a bad idea. And here's the thing, you mentioned uh organized labor. I think that's a split. If you're in a public sector union, yeah, you you think this is your paycheck. The private sector unions, the trades, they understand that what this is doing to our economy and what this is going to is doing and is going to do more of is drive down their own economic uh opportunities to build infrastructure in our state, to build projects in our state. So I think you've got a real division even among uh organized labor across the state.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

I think you're probably right about that. I'm talking to John Braun. John, by the way, tell my audience where they can find your website so they can help you out in your campaign to replace the failed Marie Glues in Camperez.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

You bet. Uh www.votebraun, v-o-t-e-b-r-a-un.com. We'd love to have uh support from folks across the district and across the state.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Let's talk about what's going on in Capitol Hill. I have never been impressed with, or at least in the last 20 years, I've not been impressed by the, I guess, work ethic of people on Capitol Hill. And I would hope that you'd be able to go back and do something different because we finally get what Republicans always wish for: majority in the House, majority in the Senate, d uh Republican in the White House. And then what do they do with it? It's as though they sit around and say, we're not going to do it, and they won't, at least in the Senate, they won't even say there's an 80-20 issue in the Save America Act, which President Trump made the case for last night. Let's go ahead and pass it. It's popular with about 80% or more of Americans. The idea that you require proof of citizenship, photo ID, ballot in by election day, and criminal penalties for signing people up to vote who are not uh eligible to vote, who are not citizens. And yet, how is it that the Republicans in the Senate can't get themselves together and get this thing done?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, I I mean uh our government by design is meant to meet move slow, sometimes maddeningly slow. I think we're gonna get there. I I do think uh, you know, we gotta stick to core is the same.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

John, you think we're gonna we're gonna get the Senate because they've only got a couple of months, and after the election, uh well, they may have a little more freedom then, but do you think they'll get it done before the election?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

I do. I mean, I you know, we don't stay in this business lesson optimist. But I think we're we gotta I think the key here, Lars, is that we've got to stay on the key issue. And I this has been and that's voter idea. You you said it. That's an 80-20 issue. Voters across the political spectrum support that idea. I think we need to narrow down and just focus on that. If we do that, it's a winning issue and we can get this done. I think it's it's gonna got wrapped up in some other that makes uh you know gives the other side talking points. I don't think it has a material effect, but it gives the other side talking points to simplify the issue. They know as well as we do that their idea is enormously popular, it's civics, that people that are allowed to vote should be encouraged and empowered to vote, but people who aren't aren't uh you know aren't eligible to vote should not be allowed to vote, and there shouldn't be any area there.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

I'm talking to John Braun, who's running to unseat Marie Glues and Camperez. We got the primary coming right up with the new the general in November, and frankly, I think it gives people in your seat, in your position, some real talking points. The Democrats, the best they can do is say, well, black people won't white won't like voter ID because black people don't know how to get a driver's license, and brown people don't know how to get a driver's license, which is so very insulting as well as being untrue. And yet people like Marie Gluzen Camperez, I assume, are hanging their hat on that. She voted against the SAVE Act, didn't she?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

She's been back and forth on this issue. She's she's trouble figuring out where she stands, frankly. And yeah, to your point, I think it is insulting. And frankly, we know uh you know, this is fear mongering. We know that there the individual states, you know, the the beauty of our of our republic is we individual states can have individual laws. We have states, you know, most recently, I think in Georgia, uh, that have put you know reasonable, common sense voter ID laws in place, and they did not have the negative impact that the that the fearmongers or the Democrats, the progressives, all claimed they would have. We actually they actually had an increase in turnout.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

So exactly. That is John Braun. John is running to unseat Marie Glusen Camperez. Back in a moment. You're listening to First Amendment Friday on the Radio Northwest Network.