President Trump endorses John Braun for Congress

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Congressional candidate and Washington state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, received a coveted endorsement from President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Braun reposted the presidential endorsement, which appeared on Trump’s social media app, Truth Social, to a Facebook account dedicated to his campaign roughly an hour and a half after it was posted at about noon.

Braun thanked the president for his endorsement and highlighted immigration, public safety and affordability as important issues for his campaign.

“I’m excited to work with you and our Republican majority in Congress to keep our border secure and our communities safe,” Braun wrote in a Facebook post and subsequent statement to The Chronicle. “And to make life affordable for all Americans.”

The endorsement from Trump came in a batch of eight others for Republican-aligned congressional candidates across the country. The endorsements were posted in the span of a few hours late Tuesday morning.

The Republican Party faces a challenging mid-term season headed into the fall as it attempts to maintain a slim majority in the House of Representatives. Republicans currently hold 217 seats while Democrats have 213.

After announcing his endorsement of Braun, Trump added criticism of the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania. The president labeled the centrist Democrat from Southwest Washington as a “true Radical Left Extremist.” He went on to claim the congresswoman supports open border policies, defunding law enforcement and confiscating firearms. He condemned her vote against his party’s omnibus funding bill passed last summer, often referred to as the “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Gluesenkamp Perez is broadly considered a moderate Democrat, leading the Blue Dog Coalition known for fiscal responsibility. At the end of last year, she was recognized as the Democrat in the House most likely to cross the aisle and vote with Republicans.

In a comment responding to Braun’s endorsement from the president, Gluesenkamp Perez denied his claims about her voting record and stated that she has fought to represent her district and is dedicated to “effective and honest governance.”

Gluesenkamp Perez went on to suggest that Braun would be reliant on the president’s support to win the district and hold it in the future, making him “beholden” to Trump’s demands.

“Voters in Southwest Washington deserve a representative who answers to them and won’t just do what they’re told by a national political machine,” Gluesenkamp Perez wrote in her response.

In the second part of his post, Trump focused on Braun, stating the state senator would embrace the president’s policies on energy, immigration, deregulation and tax cuts, referring to him as an advocate for “Pro Growth Policies” and “American Energy DOMINANCE.”

In the last two elections for Washington’s Third Congressional District seat, Trump endorsed Republican Joe Kent, who lost to Gluesenkamp Perez by narrow margins in both elections. Trump later appointed Kent to head the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, a post he resigned from citing military action in Iran.

Braun has often been seen as a traditional Washington Republican from before the era of Trump’s embrace by the national Republican Party. Braun has served in the Washington state Legislature since he was first elected in 2012. In recent years, he has endorsed candidates for the Washington state Legislature who were considered to be moderate conservatives or, at a minimum, less vocal on controversial issues, The Washington State Standard reported.

The Washington State Standard published an article last July, shortly after the president signed his party’s expansive funding bill, highlighting a new approach by state Republican leadership to Trump administration policies.

The article quotes Braun, who was critical of the reaction to the “Big, Beautiful Bill” from state Democrats, labeling it “fear mongering” and instead suggesting Washington residents would be “pretty pleased” with the federal funding bill.

The passage of the federal funding bill arrived just before Braun announced his campaign for Congress the following month in August 2025.