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After Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler voted to impeach former President Trump, a number of candidates have since stepped forward or said they’re readying a plan to step forward to challenge her in Washington’s 3rd congressional district.

One of those candidates is Joe Kent of Battleground. He’s a retired Green Beret and an America First Republican, and joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH to discuss what prompted him to run.

“So this decision to get involved in politics is fairly new for me. I had a desire to serve my country as far back as I can remember, and that took me into the military and gave me a great 20 year career, and then a little bit after I served in the intelligence community,” he said.

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“After my wife was killed serving our country in Syria fighting ISIS, I stepped away from government service, and wanted to stay involved in politics, began speaking out on behalf of President Trump’s America First foreign policy, all the way through the 2020 campaign,” Kent said. “And then when I saw what happened to the 2020 campaign, where there was widespread irregularities and then big tech and the media all moved in lockstep with the far left to silence our voices, I knew I wanted to do something.”

Rep. Herrera Beutler’s impeachment vote seemed to nudge Kent to take the leap, and he says he felt compelled to run.

“I just didn’t know exactly what that was until the woman that I supported, donated to, and elected, betrayed the president and voted for impeachment,” he said. “And she did so before we even established a timeline on the events of January 6. So I knew I had to get off the bench and let her and the establishment Republicans and the far left know that me, and my family, and my district won’t take it anymore, and we’re going to fight back.”

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As Jason asked, why should one vote — in this case, for an impeachment — disqualify Herrera Beutler? Is it possible that on one significant issue there is a disagreement, but with everything else there’s a general agreement?

“This is, I think, the straw that broke the camel’s back for many with representative [Herrera] Beutler. I mean, as you know, the third district is sandwiched in between heavily blue, radical, Democrat-controlled areas,” Kent said. “So for a while, I think the conventional wisdom of just keeping any Republican that would hold this seat was good enough. And to be quite honest, I fell for that mentality as well.”

For Kent, Herrera Beutler has not properly represented the district, and is more interested in the whims of the media than in actual Republican values.

“Representative [Herrera] Beutler, in 2016, she was somewhat of a Never Trumper. She went back on it, eventually said that she didn’t like the guy. She couldn’t vote for him, but he was OK. By 2020, she changed her tune and said the typical stuff as well,” he said. “He had done good things for the economy, so she could bring herself to support him. She couldn’t support him on trying to repeal Obamacare, which has greatly affected so many people in this district and in this country, and many other issues that she was very wishy washy on.”

“If you’re not going to stand and fight for truth and for actual accountability and due process, and you’re just going to listen to the whims of the mainstream media, then I think that you can’t represent your people.”

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.