Welcome to my diary series titled Majority Savers! I will run a new article every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. The goal of this series is to highlight races that may make or break our current slender majorities in Congress. That means I will start more with incumbent Senators and House members until some primary elections are settled. If I have time, I will expand it to governors as well in critical swing states.
If you want to find my previous entries in this series, I recommend following me or searching for Majority Savers as a tag!
I have six ground rules behind the philosophy of this series. I’d ask you all to respect them as best you can, because these are taking me quite a long time to write. Here are my ground rules.
Today, I travel to the district that is one of the most Trump supporting out of all of the districts a member of Congress from the Democratic Party holds. This article will be a tough sell here, because this candidate has to vote against us on major occasions due to that fact. He still supports many progressive issues, so it is important to protect Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd district!
Golden all cleaned up for his Congressional portrait!
Candidate Background
This background isn’t a full biography, which can be found here. This is only intended to give you a glimpse into why he has the right background for Maine’s 2nd District.
- He quit college to join the U.S. Marine Corps in 2002 as a response to 9/11. He has served combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. This service for America cannot be discounted, even if the causes he served for were less than noble.
- He served as a staffer for Sen. Susan Collins and got plenty of experience on how Washington works while learning important matters on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. This also gives him the moderate and bipartisan credentials that play well in the district.
- Golden also served in the Maine State House, rising to the position of Assistant Majority Leader. He shepherded through the instant runoff voting law that became critical in his 2018 run as the chair of the Elections Committee.
Jared Golden in another campaign ad from a previous election campaign.
Signature Issues
Rep. Jared Golden has a DW Nominate score of -0.114, which indicates a moderate record. He is the most conservative Democratic caucus member, but he is MUCH better than any GOP member of the House. The nearest GOP member has a score of 0.164, meaning the most moderate GOP member is further away from the center and is much much more conservative than he is!
He is a ‘MORE Democrat”, and we need to recognize and support him even if he is one of the most conservative Democratic members of our caucus when it comes to votes. I’m about to reveal a painful truth about House and Senate votes to you to try and convince you to support him: these votes are THEATRE. THE VOTE IS ALREADY PRE-DECIDED BEFORE IT HAPPENS. What does that mean?
It means that nearly every time Rep. Jared Golden votes against the Democratic priorities, he has permission from Speaker Pelosi to do so. If his vote were truly needed, he would not have that permission from the Speaker and he would either find allies to stall the vote or he would vote in favor of the resolution or bill. He votes against things because he is in a Trump district! Not because he is a pain in the ass!
Besides, he is influential on some key issues:
Health Care: Golden supports an expansion to Medicare and Medcaid, has vigorously protected the ACA during TFG regime, and has expressed support for Medicare For All in the past. He is in favor of lowering prescription drug costs and is a fairly reliable vote when it comes to being pro-choice. Some moderate issue positions there!
Citizens United and Election Reform: He supports a constitutional amendment or any legislation that overturns Citizens United. He refuses to take any corporate PAC money, which is definitely a stand in such a swing district. Finally, he supported and co-sponsored the election reforms in the For the People Act. Definitely something a moderate would do…
Veterans Affairs: I get it, this isn’t as earth shattering as the previous two, but he has been pushing to aid his fellow veterans ever since he won his seat in Congress. Veterans suffering from the effects of Agent Orange all these years later is still an issue, and he fights for them. He saw so many fellow veterans get PTSD that he is pushing the VA to improve their mental health staff and capacity.
Elections History
Recent Elections —
2020 President: TFG (R-inc) 51.6%, Joe Biden (D) 45.5%
2020 House: Jared Golden (D-inc) 53.0%, Dale Crafts (R) 47.0%
2022 Race Rating: Tossup
2022 PVI: R+6
This district used to be Republican leaning in nature, just like most of New England. Reagan and HW Bush won the district easily in their election campaigns. Olympia Snowe held down this House seat before ascending to the Senate. Things changed when Clinton ran for office, with Ross Perot putting in a strong showing twice and aiding Clinton into winning this electoral vote.
This blue collar district stuck with the Democratic Party for a while, voting for Gore, Kerry, and Obama twice. During that same time frame, it tended to elect moderate Democratic members of Congress such as Rep. Mike Michaud. However, Maine’s 2nd district became enamored with TFG, and it has veered sharply to the right. TFG split Maine’s electoral votes twice by handily winning this district. 2014 was a wake up call, as it flipped in Congress from our side to the GOP quite handily.
At the same time, Maine’s 2nd district has only thrown out an incumbent one time since 1916. That happened during the 2018 blue wave election, when Rep. Bruce Poliquin was tossed aside by instant runoff voting for Golden. Golden likely faces Poliquin once again in 2022, and he has to hope that the 2nd district remains on his side and recent history doesn’t repeat itself in reverse. The lean of the district makes it a challenge for him to hold the district if any form of backlash to Biden forms!
Golden posing with a stack of logs. Lumber is a key resource found in this district.
Political Tour of the District
Maine’s 2nd district covers most of Maine.
Maine’s 2nd district is the largest in geography east of the Mississippi River, covering roughly 27,000 square miles in area. That’s a LOT of ground for candidates to cover! Luckily, many of the areas are rural and unpopulated, especially near the Canadian border. There are still many small towns and cities found in the district, including Bangor, Augusta, Lewiston/Auburn, Presque Isle, and Caribou. It is there that most of the population in the district can be found.
Here’s where this race will be won in the 2nd district.
- Lewiston/Auburn, Augusta, Bangor: These small cities are pockets of blue in what is otherwise a sea of rural red. It will be important for Golden to run up the score in friendly turf because the rest of the district grows more hostile to Democratic candidates with each passing year.
- Areas by Acadia National Park: These more rural areas are an exception to the previous rule, and are areas that Joe Biden won in 2020. Golden must win over these environmentally conscious and tourist catering voters if he is to secure re-election in 2022.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
- Presque Isle and Caribou: These two small cities in northern Maine, on the other hand, have decided to vote for TFG and for GOP candidates in the last few years. These small cities aren’t ones that Golden needs to win, but he certainly needs to keep them relatively close in margin or otherwise he will lose the district just like Biden did in 2020.
- Rural Northern Maine: The rest of the district does have a few more blue precincts according to Dave’s Redistricting App, but the majority of rural northern Maine is a sea of red as blue collar whites trend away from the Democratic Party. Golden has to buck this trend and win one of the least diverse districts east of the Mississippi by narrowing the margins in rural territory.
Activism — Help How You Can!
In Quarter 1, Rep. Jared Golden raised around $632k for his re-election bid, which will go far in the rural 2nd district of Maine. He outraised Poliquin for the quarter, which is always a good thing when you are in a dogfight with a tough challenger. He will need to up his game though because the dark money flood will be coming for him as the incumbent with the Trumpiest (or 2nd Trumpiest) district.
Golden has $1.74 MILLION cash on hand, which again goes a long way in a rural district with a very small media market. His problem is that he is facing a former member of Congress, and the rules allow that member of Congress to sit on their campaign cash indefinitely. Poliquin actually has more cash on hand at this point in the race, which isn’t a good situation for Golden. I can understand not supporting him with cash because of his votes, but he actually does need the donations because of this fact.
DONATE TO REP. JARED GOLDEN HERE
Maybe you don’t want to give him your money, but you can follow him on social media. You can follow him on Twitter (he doesn’t use this account much), where he only has 8,285 followers.
Maybe Facebook is more your style, so follow him at jaredgoldenforcongress. There is also Instagram, which he posts at jaredgoldenforcongress as well.
Maybe you live in Maine and wish to volunteer for him. The best way to do so right now is to visit his campaign site, https://jaredgoldenforcongress.com/.
I realize that Golden has voted against quite a few of Biden’s signature issues (Build Back Better, gun safety, and the American Rescue Plan). However, I hope that I have made the case that Rep. Jared Golden is still a member of Congress worth supporting because he is still with us on many key issues. Remember that if we lose a net of 5 seats in the House, we will be at the mercy of Speaker McCarthy or worse — Speaker Jim Jordan. We have to fight for as many incumbents as possible!
