The Democrat Candidate For Washington State Senate Sure Knows How To Party

Washington state Democratic candidate Krista Perez wanted to go home.

Instead, she got a backseat sermon and a DUI charge.

Newly released Tacoma Police bodycam shows the 40-year-old first-time candidate, who just weeks earlier finished first in the 29th Legislative District primary, standing outside her 2019 Chevy Silverado after midnight on Aug. 11. The airbag had already deployed. Five vehicles were damaged after her truck struck a parked car on South G Street and triggered a chain reaction.

Officers asked if she’d been in an accident.“I did not,” Perez said. Then: “I don’t know. I’ve never been in an accident before.”She admitted drinking wine at a friend’s business, rated her own sobriety a 4 out of 10, and asked to go home first. She declined field sobriety tests. When cops asked if she had anything else to share, she replied that anything they wanted would be “under duress.”Then came the meltdown.

Handcuffed in the back of the patrol car, Perez broke down for several minutes, sobbing and praying in English and Spanish: “Help me, God. Help me. Holy Spirit, help me.”Prosecutors charged her with DUI plus a refusal enhancement after she later failed to provide a usable breath sample at headquarters. Washington law still lets her stay on the ballot. She faces incumbent Democrat Melanie Morgan in November.

That’s the judgment some voters in the Tacoma-area district just sent toward Olympia.

Perez’s campaign has declined comment on the pending case. Her lawyer has said she remains focused on “the work ahead.”The work ahead now includes a general election six weeks away, and a video that’s already making the rounds.