US Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was one of the few Democrats to win a swing district in the 2024 election. She explains what lessons Democrats can learn from her win and what she hopes to accomplish, even as a minority, in the 119th Congress. This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin and Peter Balonon-Rosen, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., after her 2022 election. Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The rap on the Democrats in 2024 was that they only spoke to the very rich and the very poor.
So they lost the working class, but not all of them lost.
Marie Gluson Camperez did not just win, she won.
In Trump country, Democrats work in the.
Trades like we live in rural communities.
We are not the devil.
We are your neighbors.
Before being elected, I ran an auto repair at a machine shop with my husband and we live in unincorporated Skamania county and and our son is three years old now.
Skamania county in Washington state has a national forest and a population of about 12,000 people.
We get our Internet from a radio tower.
We get our water from a well.
In her first term, Gluesenkamp Perez crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans on behalf of her rural and working class constituents, and she horrified some Democrats along the way.
Her plans to get things done despite a Republican majority in Congress.
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