{"id":1363314,"date":"2022-03-07T19:54:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T00:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1363314"},"modified":"2022-03-07T19:54:59","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T00:54:59","slug":"exclusive-challenger-joe-kent-gop-incumbent-is-totally-chamber-of-commerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-challenger-joe-kent-gop-incumbent-is-totally-chamber-of-commerce\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive &#8211; Challenger Joe Kent: GOP Incumbent Is &#039;Totally Chamber of Commerce&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-challenger-joe-kent-gop-incumbent-is-totally-chamber-of-commerce%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1363314&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Republican Joe Kent is running on a populist platform for a seat in Congress, but first he must win his Washington state GOP primary against incumbent Rep. Jaime\u00a0Herrera Beutler and her corporate donors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s getting money from Google, she\u2019s getting money from Amazon, she\u2019s voting for amnesty \u2026 she\u2019s supporting H-1B visas,\u201d Kent told Breitbart News.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s a complete corporatist \u2026 If you look at her [donations] report, she gets very little money in individual contributions. Everything she gets is a corporate paycheck. So she is completely beholden to the $5,000 PAC [political action committee] checks and then the Super-PAC money that comes in from the special interest groups.\u00a0So, yeah, she\u2019s totally Chamber of Commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16521236\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/05\/wi\/ap\/11\/congress-republicans-herrera-beutler-june-2020-file-photo-rep-jaime-herrera-beutler-wash-speaks.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-16521236 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/congress-republicans-herrera-beutler-june-2020-file-photo-rep-jaime-herrera-beutler-wash-speaks-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Associated Press\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>In this June 4, 2020, file photo, U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., speaks during a Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee hearing. (Al Drago\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The concerns of ordinary people have to be at the center of a normal economy, not corporate interests and failed government promises, Kent said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m 41, and since the time I was a kid, I was told that I had to go to college,\u201d he said. \u201cI should take out loans and it would be worth it, and if I was really smart, I\u2019d get a job in the tech industry [although] I had to go to one of the big cities and the big hubs to make that happen. But then we find that when we actually get there, when we have our degrees \u2026 all these white-collar jobs that people promised us just aren\u2019t there \u2026 and now it\u2019s incredibly difficult to be able to get a decent job that you can provide for a family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The debate cannot be limited to economics, Kent asserted.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9962814\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/7071a2_tech-workers-are-increasingly-moving-united-states-canada-due-hassle-in.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9962814\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/7071a2_tech-workers-are-increasingly-moving-united-states-canada-due-hassle-in.jpg\" alt=\"AFP\" width=\"768\" height=\"498\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Tech worker (AFP\/PUNIT PARANJPE)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt is something, I think, that we haven\u2019t done a good job of on the right is talking about the moral obligation that we have to our own people,\u201d he said. \u201cHey, what is the purpose of having a country? Are we simply just in an economy where we always do what is in the best interest of the economy and the GDP? [Gross Domestic Product] Or \u2014 and I argue this strongly \u2014 are we a sovereign nation-state that cares deeply about our people? We say the whole premise of us having a government and us having borders is that we are trying to do the best we can \u2026 for our people, and this is a moral obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13246822\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/India-visa-work-640x480-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13246822\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/India-visa-work-640x480-1.jpg\" alt=\"H1-B Visa Workers\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Tech workers. (MANJUNATH KIRAN\/AFP\/Getty)<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI say the same thing about onshoring in our industry. We shipped all of our jobs overseas, we made it impossible to leave high school and get a decent-paying job that you can support a family on. We have probably about three generations of data on the catastrophic effect that that\u2019s had on the American working class. The American working class \u2014 it\u2019s white, it\u2019s black, it\u2019s Latino, it\u2019s the most diverse class that we have,\u201d Kent continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way that we\u2019ve destroyed so many different families and so many lives is absolutely immoral. We\u2019ve done that on the altar of free trade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt is the same thing with immigration. [Advocates for migration] say, \u2018Oh, you guys are being racist and heartless.\u2019 No, it\u2019s not that at all. It\u2019s just that this country exists to protect our own people, and this is what any country that\u2019s compassionate will actually do,\u201d Kent said.<\/p>\n<p>The House district in southwest Washington State voted for Donald Trump by 8 points in 2016 and almost 4 points in 2020. <a href=\"https:\/\/jhb.house.gov\/\">Herrera Beutler<\/a>, however, won the district by 13 points in 2020, aided by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/congressionalleadershipfund.org\/clf-statement-on-congresswoman-jaime-herrera-beutlers-victory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$800,000<\/a> of spending by one corporate-funded Super PAC. \u201cHerrera Beutler\u00a0has been a bipartisan leader voters can count on to get results,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/congressionalleadershipfund.org\/clf-statement-on-congresswoman-jaime-herrera-beutlers-victory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> Dan Conston, president of the Congressional Leadership Fund Super PAC.<\/p>\n<p>Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/570431-trump-endorses-primary-challenger-to-herrera-beutler-over-impeachment-vote\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">endorsed<\/a> Kent, in part, because Herrera Beutler voted to impeach Trump.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_19219386\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/GettyImages-669942066.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19219386\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/GettyImages-669942066.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>President Donald Trump signs an executive order to try to bring jobs back to American workers and revamp the H-1B visa guest worker program during a visit to the headquarters of tool manufacturer Snap-On on April 18, 2017 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kent is ahead in the polls, according to a Trafalgar poll released February 15. The poll showed Kent with 26 percent, and Herrera Beutler at 22 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re leading in fundraising, with $1.3 million [in the bank], all raised through individual contributions, no corporate PAC money,\u201d Kent said. \u201cRight now the poll if the race was held, the incumbent wouldn\u2019t even make it out of the primaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The district has been hit hard by the one-two export of jobs and inflow of foreign contract workers, he said. \u201cBetween outsourcing, killing off our timber industry or fishing industry, just overregulation in general \u2026 [and] we used to have a decent amount of semiconductor advanced microchip production in the district, that\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19581330\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/employees-working-in-a-microchip-factory.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19581330\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/employees-working-in-a-microchip-factory.jpg\" alt=\"employees working in a microchip factory\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Employees working in a microchip factory. (KAZUHIRO NOGI\/Getty)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe supply chain issues \u2026 gives us a really unique opportunity to have way more honest discussions,\u201d Kent said. \u201cLook, this experiment of globalism has failed. Look how it\u2019s failed \u2014 we can\u2019t get things in the grocery store in the most developed country in the world. The supply chain issue has exposed that this [policy] simply isn\u2019t safe \u2026 There\u2019s a very kitchen-table case to be made for saying, \u2018Hey, look, we do need to bring back a lot of these jobs in these industries to the district.\u2019 People understand the economy is not going well, so they recognize this would be a good thing for our economy. There\u2019s a very common sense and compassionate case to be made for America First economics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The government\u2019s failure to help American families at home is especially sharp for Kent, who accomplished 11 overseas tours fighting for his government\u2019s open-ended goals in distant Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, his widely-admired wife, Shannon Kent, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/podcasts\/2021\/05\/26\/the-spouse-angle-podcast-up-this-week-gold-star-husband-joe-kent-on-life-after-losing-his-wife\/#:~:text=Joe%20Kent%20is%20a%20retired,operations%20against%20ISIS%20in%20Syria.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">killed<\/a> by a suicide bomber in Iraq, leaving two children with just their father.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20143922\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/03\/Shannon_Kent.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-20143922 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Shannon_Kent-825x1024-1.jpg\" alt=\"Shannon Kent\" width=\"825\" height=\"1024\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Shannon Kent (U.S. Navy)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI was in Iraq for the vast majority of it as [a Green Beret infantryman], including the bad years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made a lot of direct action, going active, and kicking in doors, and then all the way working with the local forces trying to train Iraqis and Yemenis and guys in Africa \u2026 I fought in the second battle of Fallujah [which] would be the most prominent name that most people would recognize.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13485237\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Kents.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13485237\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Kents.jpeg\" alt=\"Joe and Shannon Kent\" width=\"757\" height=\"1200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Joe and Shannon Kent (Twitter\/@joekent16)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAs long as we can state what the national security interest is, I\u2019m okay with using force. But just having this blank check where we stay and we start getting into nation-building, that\u2019s where I have some heartburn. \u2026\u00a0The military-industrial complex is always going to say we have to have a massive deployment of troops like what\u2019s going on in Ukraine,\u201d Kent said.<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p>A major problem is the federal government\u2019s policy of allowing technology companies to import their own workforce instead of hiring many Americans in the district, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe work visas, especially the H-1B visas for the tech workers, has been a huge issue in our district,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just have to really point out that the visas that they are giving out are directly designed to take jobs away from Americans, either Americans that have college degrees and work in tech, or Americans that could be doing decent entry-pay, manual-labor type of jobs. Really, it\u2019s just an assault on the working class and the middle class,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Major corporations and Wall Street gain from cheap imported labor, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the corporate donor class. That\u2019s why you see this harmony between your typical Country Club Republicans and your typical Country Club Democrats. That\u2019s why they\u2019re all about this unchecked legal and illegal immigration, because it allows them to undercut working and middle-class wages. So I think this is a very, very populist issue that we can bring people to the table, especially with inflation being absolutely out of control. One of the best things that we can do is tighten up the labor market and when we tighten up the labor market, we\u2019re tightening it up in favor of the American employees so that they can really have a chance to negotiate for decent-paying jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This corporate preference for migrants is alienating some Americans from manual labor, he argued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to do something a little better with our culture of saying that \u201cHey,\u00a0 this country was built by people who did really hard unsexy labor, there is a lot of value in very difficult manual labor, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with doing that. I grew up as middle class as I possibly could but I joined the Army when I was 18. I was a private in the infantry and that\u2019s about as blue-collar as it gets and it\u2019s good to pay your way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many advocates for migration say technology companies need foreign workers because Americans cannot do the work.<\/p>\n<p>But Kent sharply disagreed, saying, \u201cI just completely reject that notion. You hear Republicans make this case a lot. They say, \u2018Hey, Americans don\u2019t STEM very well,\u2019 so every time a foreigner comes to one of our colleges and graduates with a tech degree, we need to staple an H-1B visa on the back of it. I can\u2019t think of anything that\u2019s more condescending or insulting to Americans. We invented the tech industry in Silicon Valley last time I checked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI also reject the narrative that, \u2018Hey, there are jobs that Americans simply won\u2019t do, and so we have to bring in all these people primarily from South America to do these manual labor jobs.\u2019 I just don\u2019t think that\u2019s accurate at all,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had a cultural issue here where some Americans do think they are above some jobs. But if [hiring migrants] just wasn\u2019t an option for employers, they would have to pay Americans for doing the jobs. That\u2019s what [the employers] are trying to prevent. [We need to] frame this in terms of this being a working-class [and] middle-class kitchen-table issue that affects Janet and Jack down the street, [who are up against] the Blackrocks [Wall Street investment firms] of the world [and] these major corporations that have the Beltway under their grasp,\u201d Kent concluded.<\/p>\n<p>The primary takes place August 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican Joe Kent is running on a populist platform for a seat in Congress, but first he must win his Washington state GOP primary against incumbent Rep. Jaime\u00a0Herrera Beutler and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1363314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}