Voters in Washington state's 3rd congressional district headed to the polls on August 4, 2026, for a top-two primary featuring two-term Democratic incumbent Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and a nine-candidate field. The ballot includes Gluesenkamp Perez, fellow Democrat Brent Hennrich, Republican John Braun, and six other candidates competing for two slots on the November general election ballot.

Under Washington's top-two system, the two highest vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party — meaning two candidates from the same party could, in theory, face each other in November. The state's primary is held on the first Tuesday of August, and Clark County, the district's population center, mailed ballots for this contest on July 17. Election officials posted tallied results from each county at results.vote.wa.gov after 8 p.m. on election night. Clark County's Elections Office will conduct hand-count audits of the 3rd Congressional District race on August 5 and August 13.

Gluesenkamp Perez first won the seat in 2022, flipping a district that Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler had held for six terms since 2010. That victory came against Trump-endorsed Republican Joe Kent, whom she narrowly defeated with 50.1% of the vote. She improved her margin in 2024, taking roughly 52% of the general election vote and running about seven points ahead of her party's presidential nominee in a district Donald Trump carried in all three of his presidential campaigns — most recently by about three points.

The 2024 primary in the district saw Gluesenkamp Perez and Joe Kent advance past Leslie Lewallen and John Saulie-Rohman, setting up their second consecutive general election matchup. Hennrich's presence on the 2026 primary ballot adds an intraparty dynamic: he ran for the seat in 2022 before standing down to clear a path that cycle, and has now mounted another campaign. The 2026 candidate field also includes Kevin Waters, listed in Clark County's candidate guide, and John P. Roco, who prefers the Republican Party and appears in the Clark County primary voters' pamphlet.

Both Hennrich and Braun criticized Gluesenkamp Perez for her voting record during the primary campaign. Braun argued that she has repeatedly pushed back against her own party. Washington's Secretary of State certified Gluesenkamp Perez as a candidate for U.S. Representative in the 3rd Congressional District, and the state's elected officials page lists her as the sitting representative for the district.

The broader context here is a test of candidate-specific crossover appeal in a politically volatile district. Gluesenkamp Perez has built her coalition by outperforming standard Democratic benchmarks by significant margins, a pattern she has replicated across two cycles. Think of it as a personal buffer: she consistently runs well ahead of what a generic Democrat would be expected to score in a district that leans Republican at the presidential level. Whether that personal brand can sustain her through a third contest — particularly with multiple Democratic and Republican challengers fragmenting the primary vote — will shape the November landscape. The 3rd district's history of ticket-splitting, combined with a crowded primary field that complicates party-line consolidation, makes the primary results a leading indicator of whether incumbency and local positioning can continue to override national partisan gravity in a district that has backed Trump at the presidential level while sending a Democrat to Congress for two consecutive terms.