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Joe Kent

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki




Joe Kent is an American far-right[1][2] politician and retired officer of the United States Army Special Forces. He was the Republican nominee in the 2022 election for Washington's 3rd congressional district, having defeated incumbent Jaime Herrera Beutler in the primary; he ultimately lost to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.[3]

He is the widower of Shannon M. Kent.

Joe Kent
Personal details
Born1980 (age 45–46)
Sweet Home, Oregon, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)
Shannon Smith
(m. 2014; died 2019)
Children2
EducationNorwich University (BS)
WebsiteCampaign website
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Army
Years of service1998–2019
RankChief Warrant Officer III

Early life and military service

Kent was born in Sweet Home, Oregon and raised in Portland. He was a member of the Boy Scouts of America.

Kent enlisted in the army at 18 as an infantryman. He served as an officer of the United States Army Special Forces, having applied shortly before the September 11 attacks, and served 11 combat deployments. [4] While in the Army, he also worked as a paramilitary officer for the CIA. [5]

Kent stepped down from service when his wife, Shannon, was killed in the 2019 Manbij bombing. Afterwards, he served on the advisory board for Military Veterans for Trump, and wrote an op-ed for NBCNews.com praising his personal encounter with President Donald Trump. [6] He also moved to Yacolt, Washington after moving back to Portland for a period following his retirement, claiming that "the far left had ruined that city". [4]

Political candidacy

Kent announced the launching of his campaign for Washington's 3rd congressional district on February 18, 2021; he stated incumbent Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler's vote in favor of the second impeachment of Donald Trump as a factor in his decision to run.[7] His candidacy was endorsed by Trump and numerous other prominent figures from the party's pro-Trump wing, such as Michael Flynn and Matt Gaetz.[8] During his campaign, he was a frequent guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Steve Bannon's show Bannon's War Room, and various programs on One America News Network and InfoWars. [9][10][11]

On August 3, 2022, Kent finished second in the nonpartisan primary for the congressional race, advancing to the general election against Democratic candidate Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Herrera Beutler finished third in the primary; she did not endorse Kent.[12][13]

In what was widely considered a major upset, with FiveThirtyEight having given Kent 98 in 100 odds of winning[14], Kent lost the election to Perez. He subsequently claimed he would not concede until "every legal vote is counted". [15]

Blanket primary results[16]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Marie Gluesenkamp Perez 68,190 31.0
Republican Joe Kent 50,097 22.8
Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler (incumbent) 49,001 22.3
Republican Heidi St. John 35,219 16.0
Republican Vicki Kraft 7,033 3.2
Democratic Davy Ray 4,870 2.2
Independent Chris Byrd 3,817 1.7
Republican Leslie French 1,100 0.5
style="background-color: Template:American Solidarity Party/meta/color; width: 2px;" | [[American Solidarity Party|Template:American Solidarity Party/meta/shortname]] Oliver Black 456 0.2
Write-in 142 0.1
Total votes 219,925 100.0

Political views

Kent has made false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump a focus of his campaign. He has labeled the perpetrators of the 2021 Capitol insurrection as "political prisoners" and spoke at a rally in defense of them organized by his top adviser. He supports impeaching Joe Biden and - in the wake of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago - Merrick Garland.[3]

Kent has also stated that he thinks Anthony Fauci should be charged with murder for the "scam that is COVID". In a September 2022 debate against Perez, Kent claimed that he was unvaccinated and that the COVID-19 vaccines are "experimental gene therapy".[17]

Kent considers himself a non-interventionist, citing his experience and the death of his wife. He claimed in the aforementioned debate that he lost many friends and his wife due to "our ruling class - Republicans and Democrats - consistently [having] lied to the American people to keep us engaged in wars abroad".[18]

Affiliations with white nationalists and far-right groups

In April 2021, Kent's campaign was endorsed by prominent white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes. Fuentes had partaken in a call with Kent around then discussing his social media strategy; Kent has claimed that he has not had any contact with Fuentes since then, and rejected Fuentes' endorsement, while Fuentes claimed Kent had praised his work.

At the urging of a Republican competitor, Kent made an explicit disavowal of Fuentes' support of his campaign in the wake of his praising of Vladimir Putin over the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. [19] Shortly afterwards, Kent appeared on a webcast by white nationalist group American Populist Union to explain his disavowal of Fuentes. On it, he stated that his disavowal was "more of a tactics thing" and that he "[didn't] think there’s anything wrong with there being a white people special interest group".[20]

Graham Jorgensen, a member of the neo-fascist organization Proud Boys, was employed as a consultant for Kent's campaign. Joey Gibson, founder of far-right group Patriot Prayer, has also been linked to Kent; Gibson heavily promoted Kent's campaign on social media and spoke at a fundraiser for Kent, in which Kent praised Gibson for "defend[ing] this community when our community was under assault from antifa".[21]

In September 2022, Andrew Kaczynski of CNN unearthed an interview from June 2022 between Kent and Greyson Arnold, a neo-Nazi YouTube streamer. A spokesman for Kent's campaign claimed that Kent was unaware of who Arnold was and assumed he was a local journalist.[22] However, in April 2022, Kent was photographed with Arnold at a fundraiser.

References

  1. ↑ Grisales, Claudia (2022-11-07). "A Washington congressional district is weighing the election of a far-right candidate". NPR. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  2. ↑ Watson, Evan (2022-10-06). "A closer look at the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for US House seat in southwest Washington". KGW. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 McCausland, Phil (2022-11-12). "Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez defeats MAGA Republican Joe Kent, flipping key Washington House seat". NBC News. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "About Joe". Joe Kent. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  5. ↑ Weisman, Jonathan (2022-10-15). "New Generation of Combat Vets, Eyeing House, Strike From the Right". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  6. ↑ Kent, Joe (2020-09-05). "Opinion | My wife died fighting ISIS under Trump's orders. How he reacted won my respect". NBC News. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  7. ↑ Vance, Ken (2021-02-21). "US Army veteran Joe Kent throws his hat in ring for Washington's 3rd Congressional District seat". ClarkCountyToday.com. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  8. ↑ Yaw, Claudia (2021-09-07). "Joe Kent rides waves of endorsements at rally with Matt Gaetz". The Reflector. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  9. ↑ Hananoki, Eric (2022-11-07). "Infowars-endorsed GOP House nominee Joe Kent frequently appears on Alex Jones' network for campaign help". Media Matters for America. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  10. ↑ Weber, Emma Mae; Mount, Beatrice; Wexler, Casey (2022-11-08). "One America News' prime-time shows have hosted dozens of extremist candidates running in 2022". Media Matters for America. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  11. ↑ Brunner, Jim (2022-11-04). "Congressional candidate Joe Kent wants to rewrite history of Jan. 6 attack". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  12. ↑ "August 2, 2022 Primary Results - CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 3". Secretary of State of Washington. 2 August 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  13. ↑ Gutman, David (2022-11-15). "How did Marie Gluesenkamp Perez pull off the upset of the year in Southwest WA?". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  14. ↑ Graham, David A. (2022-11-14). "The House Race That Shows Why Republicans Collapsed in the Midterms". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  15. ↑ Brynelson, Troy (2022-11-14). "Facing defeat, Joe Kent campaign looks to 'cure' challenged ballots". opb. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  16. ↑ "August 2, 2022 Primary Results - CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 3". Secretary of State of Washington. 2 August 2022. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  17. ↑ Lanard, Noah (2022-10-05). "Joe Kent's forever war". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  18. ↑ La Corte, Rachel (2022-10-12). "Washington House seat in play amid increased polarization". AP. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  19. ↑ Brynelson, Troy (2022-03-07). "Congressional candidate Joe Kent distances from white nationalist amid social media spat". opb. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  20. ↑ Goldberg, Michelle (2022-09-24). "Opinion | The Midterm Race That Has It All". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  21. ↑ Slodysko, Brian (2022-07-27). "GOP's links to extremism surface in congressional primary". AP. Retrieved 2022-10-18.
  22. ↑ Kaczynski, Andrew; Steck, Em (2022-09-30). "GOP congressional candidate Joe Kent's ties to white nationalists include interview with Nazi sympathizer | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2022-10-18.


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