Pro-Trump Candidate Pulls Ahead, Projected to Beat Incumbent Who Voted to Impeach Trump

A Republican attempting to unseat a congresswoman who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump pulled ahead of the incumbent on Aug. 8, and is now projected to earn a spot in the general election.

Joe Kent, the GOP candidate, trailed Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), who voted to impeach Trump, by thousands of votes soon after the Aug. 2 election.

But as more ballots have been counted, Kent began to gain on Beutler, and on Monday went from 303 votes down to 960 votes up.

After the latest batch of votes were tallied in Cowlitz, Clark, and Thurston counties, Cook Political Report, which forecasts and projects races, projected Kent will ultimately trump the incumbent.

“We are in the lead & feeling strong,” Kent said in a statement on social media.

Beutler’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the updated results.

Kent urged people to check to make sure their ballot has not been “rejected” or “returned.” If it has, people can try to fix the issue and resubmit their ballot.

Kent himself had his ballot rejected, forcing him to go and verify his signature, he told the National Pulse.

More Counting

Cowlitz County has approximately 480 ballots left to count, Thurston County has about 7,000, and Clark County has about 10,000, according to the county election websites.

Officials in Thurston and Clark counties expect to give the next updates on the tallies during the afternoon of Aug. 9.

Cowlitz County says its next update will take place on Aug. 10.

Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey told KOIN-TV that the work includes verifying signatures on ballots that were sent by mail.

“The most important security feature in vote-by-mail is to verify the signatures on those affidavit envelopes,” she said. “And everyone of those ballot envelopes that are returned

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases