Report details Marie Gluesenkamp Perez's college ties to fetish events, campus drug culture

A new report is casting fresh scrutiny on Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez's years at Reed College, alleging the Southwest Washington Democrat who is running for re-election helped fund a campus fetish ball, promoted student events tied to the school's drug culture, and was later accused by former acquaintances of bizarre behavior ranging from bartering spoiled food for rent to participating in the decapitation of a chicken during an urban farming experiment.

The allegations, many drawn from archived student government records, podcasts, and interviews with former classmates and roommates, surface as Gluesenkamp Perez enters what is shaping up to be the toughest reelection campaign of her political career.

According to the New York Post, Gluesenkamp Perez served as a student senator and chaired Reed College's finance committee in 2012. During that time, the student government approved approximately $4,000 in funding for a campus "Latex Fetish Ball," an event organized by the school's Fetish Club.

The club reportedly offered workshops on bondage techniques and other fetish-related activities, while Gluesenkamp Perez also supported funding for Reed's annual Renn Fayre celebration, a campus tradition that includes nude runs by body-painted students.

The newspaper also reported that the student government promoted an "LSD giveaway" and "Nitrogen Day," events tied to Reed College's longstanding reputation for an open drug culture. Reed College had previously drawn national attention for student-written drug guides discussing substances including LSD, psilocybin, cocaine, ketamine, and nitrous oxide, commonly known as whippets.

Former roommate Isaac Eger alleged during an episode of the COEXIST, Inc. podcast that Gluesenkamp Perez lived in housing he provided following a breakup but repeatedly failed to pay rent. Eger recalled that when he requested payment, she once attempted to compensate him with spoiled produce. "The kind of avocado where you can't even turn it into guacamole or anything. And she's like, 'here's rent,'" Eger said. "And I was like, uh, no, absolutely not."

"She would literally never pay rent," he added.

Eger also claimed Gluesenkamp Perez was an avid dumpster diver and once decapitated a chicken while roommates frantically searched online for a humane way to slaughter the animal during an urban farming experiment. Investigative journalist Dan Boguslaw, who attended Reed College, alleged in a separate report cited by the outlet that Gluesenkamp Perez sold low-quality marijuana from a van.

Earlier this year, Inside Elections shifted Washington's 3rd Congressional District from "Tilt Democratic" to "Toss Up," citing Gluesenkamp Perez's ongoing challenges with Democratic base voters in a district President Donald Trump carried by approximately three percentage points in 2024. The outlet wrote that "Democratic representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has ongoing issues with her base that won't prevent her from getting through the top 2 primary, but it could make her race against state senator John Braun a little less comfortable in a district where Trump finished ahead of Kamala by three points."

That assessment follows a recent co/efficient survey that found Republican State Sen. John Braun leading Gluesenkamp Perez 41 to 34 percent in a hypothetical general election matchup. The poll also found the congresswoman with a 50 percent unfavorable rating and support from just 69 percent of Democratic voters.

Republicans have also criticized Gluesenkamp Perez after campaign finance disclosures showed that approximately 81 percent of her campaign contributions came from outside Washington state. Critics have further pointed to her silence as Democrats in Olympia advanced a proposal to impose an income tax during this year's legislative session.

Gluesenkamp Perez first won the seat in 2022 after defeating Republican Joe Kent and has frequently attempted to present herself as a moderate, blue-collar Democrat.