Protesters target Perez for her voting record

Protesters have gathered in front of U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s Vancouver offices every day last week.

Many of them helped to elect the Skamania Democrat to Congress in 2022 and 2024 but have since grown frustrated with her, especially after her Jan. 22 vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

“Time and again, I have demanded answers from my congresswoman, and her office won’t take our calls anymore,” said Vancouver resident Matt Brady, 31. “We’ve complained too much. She does not listen to us. All we get are weak answers.”

Brady joined about 20 others protesting outside Perez’s office on Officers Row in Vancouver on Wednesday afternoon last week.

As Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” and other politically charged songs played on a nearby speaker, the protesters held handmade signs and waved at people passing by in vehicles. Most of the drivers beeped and waved back in support. Two people walking on a nearby sidewalk shouted “thank you” to the group of protesters.

All of the people who spoke to The Columbian that afternoon said they had supported Perez in the past. Some said they’d canvassed for her in 2022 and 2024 when she ran against Republican candidate Joe Kent, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump.

Vancouver residents Makani Dalton, 30, and Christine Sison, 29, said they knocked on doors for Perez in 2022 and voted for her twice but have since become disenchanted with Perez’s voting record and moderate take on issues important to many Democratic voters in the 3rd District’s urban areas.

“She’s shown she doesn’t have the same values … which is frustrating, because she’s supposed to be representing us as well as the rural residents in Clark County,” Sison said.

Dalton, a software engineer who co-chairs a Clark County group that promotes ranked choice voting, agreed.

“Generally, she tends to vote the right way, but there are some stark exceptions to that,” Dalton said.

He pointed to Perez’s 2025 vote in favor of the Republican-backed SAVE Act. It would require voters to prove U.S. citizenship and could cause trouble for people whose legal identification does not match the name on their birth certificate.

Dalton also took issue with Perez’s Jan. 22 vote in favor of funding the Department of Homeland Security and giving $10 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to fund raids in search of undocumented immigrants. Many ICE raids have resulted in the detainment of legal immigrants, U.S. citizens, children, veterans and Native Americans.

Americans horrified by the recent ICE and Border Patrol shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota earlier this year have been demonstrating in cities across the country, calling on their elected federal representatives to help stop the violence and protect their constituents’ constitutionally protected rights.

“Being a leader in this fight is what we expect from our representative,” Dalton said. “ICE is committing violence in our streets, and I would like her to be more vocal in standing up against that.”

East Vancouver resident Jim Ault, 66, said last week was the first time he’s protested since the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Ault said he has been frustrated by Perez’s tendency to vote with Republicans instead of joining other House Democrats.

In 2025, Perez was the second-most likely House member to vote with members of the opposite party.

Ault said he’s reached out to Perez but has never heard back from the representative he helped elect in 2022 and 2024.

“As things have ramped up in Minnesota, I’ve started writing again, but I’ve never heard back, not once,” Ault said. “And I know her stock answer is, ‘Oh, I’m trying to represent all the people in this district,’ but our rights are being trampled.”

Several other protesters shared Ault’s assessment of Perez, who co-chairs the moderate Blue Dog Coalition.

“She has told us time and again that the people of Vancouver are unreasonable,” Brady said. “She doesn’t like us as constituents. She does not value our input. She does not want to talk to us. She won’t even answer our phone calls or respond to our emails. So this is our one option to tell her we won’t be silenced.”

Vancouver residents Diane Cavanaugh, 63, and Teresa Phimister, 71, shared similar exasperation with Perez during the protest.

“She is wishy-washy, trying to please both sides,” Cavanaugh said. “I want her to stand up for democracy. And it’s frustrating. I mean, the things that are happening are in clear violation of the Constitution.”

Phimister said she would like Perez to know how many of her constituents — including many former supporters — are feeling right now.

“You’re not speaking up for anything. You’re not fighting for anything,” Phimister said she would tell her congressional representative if she could speak to her face to face. “You’re playing defense instead of offense. Stand up for the Constitution. Protect people. That’s your job.”

At least one of the people who showed up to the protest outside Perez’s Vancouver office still supports her.

“I’m bloody tired of the ‘us against them’ mentality of a two-party system,” said Louis Marteeni, 78, of Vancouver.

Marteeni, a self-described liberal, said he has supported Perez in the past and still supports her even when she votes with Republicans.

“I respect how (Perez) digs deep into how she decides to vote,” Marteeni said. He said he appreciated that Perez voted in favor of the DHS funding bill on Jan. 22 to help keep open other federal agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“This funding they were voting on wouldn’t have changed ICE activity whatsoever,” Marteeni said, referring to the fact that the federal government approved six years’ worth of ICE funding in 2025.

“ICE has been in existence for almost 25 years, doing the work of multiple presidents and very quietly, behind the scenes, with no violence and no national headlines,” Marteeni said. “And Perez does support the resignation or impeachment, however it will manifest itself, of their current leadership.”

Perez said Saturday that she believes Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem must resign in the wake of Good’s and Pretti’s deaths at the hand of ICE and Border Patrol agents.

She also posted a video last week to her X (formerly Twitter) account saying Democrats “need to be strategic” when it comes to the DHS and ICE funding bill that cleared the House on Jan. 22 thanks to seven Democrats, including Perez, who voted with all but one Republican to pass the bill.

“We have to be strategic and think clearly. ICE is pre-funded for six years. The reconciliation bill that was passed last January means ICE can keep doing this for six years,” Perez said in the video. “They did it before the budget was passed. They’re going to keep doing it even if the budget’s not passed. And so that’s not the question. The question is: What leverage do Dems have now to negotiate accountability right now to end this craziness?”

Perez said she hopes Senate Democrats will push to get federal ICE and Border Patrol officers to wear identification numbers, end the immigration enforcement surges in U.S. cities and “get an investigation in Minnesota that (isn’t) run by the feds.”

“There’s stuff that is worth getting,” Perez said. “Because the money is not the question at this point. It’s pre-funded. I know everyone feels terrible, but we have to be strategic right now.”

The video post drew mostly negative comments on X, with many calling Perez out for not joining other House Democrats on the DHS funding vote.

“Your entire ‘strategy’ is to vote with Republicans while calling yourself a Democrat,” Brent Hennrich, a Vancouver Democrat who has said he intends to run against Perez this year, said in a comment on Perez’s video. “You need to stop lying to people. You are a Republican.”

Several people at the recent protest said they would like to hear Perez explain why many of her positions align more with Republicans than Democrats.

The protesters also broached the subject of replacing Perez as the top Democratic contender in the 2026 midterm election.

Perez already has several people lined up to challenge her in Washington’s top-two primary election on Aug. 4.

The official filing period for candidates is May 4-8, but at least six people already have stated their intentions to run against Perez in 2026, including Republican state Sen. John Braun, who has served as Washington’s Senate minority leader since 2020. Republicans Antony Barran and Lawrence Kellogg also plan to run.

But Hennrich and Suzzanna Tanner from within Perez’s own party also are lining up to challenge her.

Ault, the Vancouver man participating in his first protest in nearly six years, said that if he could speak directly to Perez, he would tell her to “become a Democrat.”

“Because right now, she’s not,” he said.