Poll commissioned by Lewallen campaign finds Clark County Republicans eager for candidates beyond Kent in race for 3rd Congressional District
A recent poll commissioned by the campaign of 3rd Congressional District candidate Leslie Lewallen, R-Camas, found that Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, has relatively low-name recognition across the district, and that many Republicans are looking for an alternative to Joe Kent, R-Yacolt.
The poll was conducted by Grassroots Targeting, a national organization that does data analytics and general consulting on races for Republican candidates. Grassroots Targeting is a general consultant for the Lewallen campaign.
Grassroots Targeting conducted a survey of likely primary voters—people who voted in the 2022 primary—across Washington’s 3rd Congressional District with 2,837 autodial interviews.
The interviews were conducted between April 24 and 25. The results were then modeled across the district’s 256,453 likely primary voters. The survey instrument has a margin of error of +/- 1.83% at a 95 percent confidence level, according to a memo from the Lewallen campaign.
The survey found that Perez is slightly less known in the district than Kent. Her name identification is at 63 percent while Kent’s name identification is at 70 percent.
Of those who said they were familiar with Perez and Kent, 38 percent said that they held a favorable opinion of Perez, while 28.8 percent said they held a favorable opinion of Kent.
That puts Perez’s net favorability at 13 percent and Kent’s at negative 12 percent.
Then, the survey asked respondents if they would vote for Perez, Kent or “a different Republican candidate” if the Aug. 6 primary election for U.S. Congress were held today.
Perez came out on top with 48.1 percent of the vote. Kent received 35.6 percent and “a different Republican candidate” received 12.2 percent. That left 5.1 percent undecided.
The survey then introduced Leslie Lewallen as a candidate by reading this bio: “Leslie Lewallen is a mother of four, fifth generation Washingtonian and Camas City Councilmember. If elected as Congresswoman, Leslie will ensure that Southwest Washington does not turn into another Portland by addressing the homelessness crisis, drugs and crime.”
Respondents were then asked to vote again as though the Aug. 6 primary were held today, only Lewallen was included in place of “a different Republican candidate.”
Perez again came out on top with 41.9 percent of the vote. However, Lewallen came in second with 32.1 percent while Kent dropped to 15 percent, leaving 11 percent undecided.
—Dylan Jefferies
