'She just walked away from me,' Rep. Marie Perez said of Harris
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A rare House Democrat representing a red area recalled a past awkward encounter with Vice President Kamala Harris, saying Harris once essentially rolled her eyes at a concern the congresswoman had about her district.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., represents the rural 3rd District in the state, which is one of the only GOP-leaning districts with a Democratic member in the country. Asked for her thoughts in a new interview on Harris' 2024 campaign in the wake of her bruising loss to President-elect Donald Trump, Perez recounted Harris shrugging off her worries about plastic decorations at a Christmas party instead of using real timber.
"When Harris first came out, I was open to talking with her," she told the New York Times. "I know she called a lot of my colleagues; she never called me. I’ve had one interaction with Harris, at her Naval Observatory Christmas party.
"I’m not super comfortable at that kind of thing. I’d had a couple of beers, and I noticed that almost all of the garlands were plastic. My district grows a hell of a lot of Christmas trees. I was strong-armed into taking a picture. I said, ‘Madam Vice President, we grow those where I live.’ She just walked away from me. There was kind of an eye roll, maybe. My thinking was, it does matter to people where I live. It’s the respect, the cultural regard for farmers. I didn’t feel like she understood what I was trying to say."
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., participates in the Bipartisan Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act news conference in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, March 06, 2024 (Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital reached out to a Harris spokesperson for comment.
Perez ran ahead of Harris by several points and appears to be heading toward re-election, and she told the New York Times that national Democrats didn't speak to the worries of her district, such as the fentanyl crisis and the high cost of food.
"People are putting their groceries on their credit card," she told the New York Times. "No one is listening to anything else you say if you try to talk them out of their lived experiences with data points from some economists."
Washington, as the results currently stand, will be the only state in the country to move leftward from the 2020 election, with Harris slightly improving on Biden's 19.2-percent victory over Trump that year. Otherwise, Tuesday was a grim night for the vice president and Democrats nationally, who lost the Senate and will likely remain in the House minority.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris looks at a monitor of the event from backstage, just before taking the stage for her final campaign rally, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Philadelphia. Harris lost the election on Tuesday to President-elect Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Perez told the Times she was unsure if Democrats would make the changes necessary to return to power after being repudiated. One of the key stories of the election and the past decade has been the dramatic exodus of working-class voters who once loyally supported Democrats.
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"It’s a lot easier to look outward, to blame and demonize other people, instead of looking in the mirror and seeing what we can do. It is not fun to feel accountability. It requires a mental flexibility that’s painful," Perez said. "So who knows?"
Trump improved dramatically in 2024 on his performance in the 2020 election, winning back such swing states as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Georgia, and appearing almost certain to clinch Arizona when the results are tallied. He saw improvements with voters in several racial, age and socioeconomic demographics.
He will likely be the first Republican to clinch the popular vote in a presidential race since George W. Bush in 2004. He's also the first Republican to win Nevada since Bush that year.
