VANCOUVER, Wash. — U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Vancouver) issued a statement Thursday raising concerns about President Joe Biden's age and health and strongly implying that he should resign from office and drop out of the 2024 presidential race, although she stopped short of directly saying so.
"I’ve spent the past two weeks listening to my constituents express their concerns about the President’s age and health. Like most people I represent in Southwest Washington, I doubt the President’s judgement about his health, his fitness to do the job, and whether he is the one making important decisions about our country, rather than unelected advisors," Gluesenkamp Perez wrote in an email to KGW. "Americans deserve to feel their president is fit enough to do the job. The crisis of confidence in the President’s leadership needs to come to an end. The President should do what he knows is right for the country and put the national interest first."
Gluesenkamp Perez's statement comes a few hours before Biden is set to hold a high-stakes live press conference, seeking to demonstrate that he remains up to the job after a halting and lackluster debate performance that set off panic among Democrats and prompted widespread concerns about his age and whether he is still capable of defeating Donald Trump in November.
Her statement also comes one day after U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland) became the first member of Oregon's congressional delegation to publicly call for Biden to drop out of the presidential race, calling it "a painful and difficult conclusion" made in the interest of "protecting democracy," and a few days after U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Tacoma) became the first member of Washington's delegation to make a similar call — though neither of them suggested Biden should resign.
Smith and Blumenauer are among a growing but still relatively small number of Democrats in Congress who have directly called for Biden to step aside, although Gluesenkamp Perez's implicit call for him to resign would make her an outlier even among that group. Many more Democrats, including others in Oregon's and Washington's delegations, have expressed concern about Biden's debate performance but remained noncommittal about whether he should be replaced on the ticket.
In Oregon, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Portland) said she was working to "identify the best path forward," U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said Biden "had a bad night" at the debate and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said there were "serious concerns" about Biden, but none of them weighed in directly on the future of his candidacy. Wyden remained noncommittal when asked again by KGW on Friday.
Rep. Andrea Salinas, a Democrat from Oregon's 6th District, was also on the fence.
“I think President Biden should do what is best for the American people. The reality is that we cannot afford another four years of chaos and tyranny under Donald Trump — and we have to stand united in our efforts to defeat him and protect our democracy," she said via email on Friday. "In the meantime, I’m staying focused on winning reelection so I can continue delivering for the people of the Sixth District.”
In Washington, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said Biden "must do more to demonstrate" his capacity to defeat Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle) issued a statement praising Biden's accomplishments and saying she would focus on demonstrating "the contrast between Democrats and Donald Trump."
Blumenauer and Gluesenkamp Perez are both in somewhat unique positions among the Democrats in their respective delegations; Blumenauer already announced his own retirement plans last year and bowed out of the 2024 election, and Gluesenkamp Perez represents a district that leans Republican; her upset 2022 victory flipped the southwest Washington seat for the first time in over a decade.
Gluesenkamp Perez has sought to distance herself from some conventional Democratic Party positions during her freshman term, projecting a tough stance on immigration and border security issues and voting in favor of a resolution aimed at halting Biden's student debt relief efforts. A Politico profile earlier this month described her as being "engaged in a generational ideological debate with much of the party's left flank."
Gluesenkamp Perez spokesperson Phil Gardner told KGW's Laural Porter that the statement on Biden was "a governing decision for the good of the country," rather than a political one, adding that Gluesenkamp Perez felt it was her responsibility as a representative to speak up.