If you’ve gone to a Democratic marketing campaign rally just lately, likelihood is you’ve heard a model of the next sentence: That is an important election of our lifetime.
Jared Golden isn’t shopping for it. The third-term Home Democrat from Maine thinks America can be simply tremendous if Donald Trump returns to the White Home. “Irrespective of who wins the presidency,” Golden instructed me final month at a Dunkin’ in his district, “the day after the election, America goes to rise up and go to work.”
Golden could not suppose the presidential election issues all that a lot, however his constituents would possibly find yourself deciding it. Maine is one in all solely two states that awards an Electoral School vote to the winner of every of its congressional districts. The simplest path to a Kamala Harris victory doesn’t rely on her profitable the electoral vote in Golden’s district, which Trump captured twice. But when the race is exceptionally shut, the district may decide which occasion controls each the Home and the presidency.
After the assassination try on Trump in July, Golden known as on each events to cease making “hyperbolic threats in regards to the stakes of this election,” as he wrote on X. “It shouldn’t be misleadingly portrayed as a wrestle between democracy or authoritarianism, or a battle towards fascists or socialists bent on destroying America. These are harmful lies.”
The Harris marketing campaign has deemphasized the democracy-versus-autocracy framing that Golden condemned. However his nonchalance a couple of Trump victory nonetheless separates him from almost everybody else in his occasion. A number of of Golden’s Home colleagues instructed me they consider he has trivialized the hazard of a second Trump time period. “He’s intentionally soft-pedaling a really grave menace to constitutional democracy,” Consultant Gerry Connolly of Virginia instructed me.
However as one in all solely 5 Home Democrats who represents a district that Trump carried in 2020, Golden has good purpose to keep away from sounding alarms in regards to the former president. He’s nearly the one Democrat attempting to decrease the stakes of the election. That could be how he helps his occasion win it.
Outside the halls of the Capitol, Golden doesn’t precisely radiate politician. After I met him on the Dunkin’ in Rumford, Maine, the 42-year-old arrived in his Chevy pickup and wore denims and a T-shirt that confirmed off the tattoos operating down every of his arms. Many lawmakers stroll into eating places of their districts as minor celebrities, glad-handing everybody in sight. Not Golden: Throughout our interview, he spoke so softly that I had the sensation he didn’t need anybody to know we have been speaking about politics.
To the frustration of many Democrats, Golden is tough to pin down. He’s stated he gained’t vote for Trump, however he has refused to endorse Harris. Ask him to explain his ideology and he’ll reply with a paradox: progressive conservative. He rejects the left/proper framing of American politics in addition to labels comparable to “average” and “centrist.” He’s progressive on abortion and homosexual rights, unions, and taxes. He’s extra conservative on border safety and federal spending. A gun proprietor and a Marine, Golden opposed an assault-weapons ban till final 12 months, when a mass capturing in his hometown of Lewiston modified his thoughts. When state Democrats took up gun-control measures after the bloodbath, Golden criticized them for not going far sufficient.
Golden gained his seat in 2018, defeating the Republican incumbent, Bruce Poliquin, by simply 3,500 votes with the assistance of ranked-choice voting, a system that Maine grew to become the primary state within the nation to make use of that 12 months. In 2022, he beat Poliquin once more, this time by 19,000 votes. His opponent this 12 months, Austin Theriault, is a Trump-endorsed NASCAR driver turned state legislator. There’s been no public polling of their race, however prognosticators fee it as a toss-up.
Lengthy earlier than Harris’s operating mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, turned “regular versus bizarre” right into a nationwide marketing campaign message, Golden had been utilizing it to distance himself from political opponents—some Democrats in addition to Republicans. But when Walz’s vibe is pleasant dad and soccer coach, Golden comes off as extra of an introvert. “He’s not a flashy, ‘see me, see me’ sort of an individual,” Craig Poulin, a former president of a Maine lobbying group who has recognized Golden for years, instructed me. That grew to become clear to me once I joined Golden at a ribbon-cutting for a nonprofit that was constructing a camp for wounded veterans. Though he had secured federal funding for the group, Golden declined to hitch the ceremonial photograph they took in entrance of a brand new dock, as a result of, he instructed me, he hadn’t raised cash for that a part of the mission. Later, when an aide tried to take a photograph of him with a bunch of veterans, Golden waved him off.
Regardless of Golden’s reserve, his political ambitions appear to be rising. Together with two different Democrats elected in Trump districts—Representatives Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington State and Mary Peltola of Alaska—he has tried to revitalize the Home’s Blue Canine Coalition, lengthy a bastion of conservative Democrats. And a few Maine Democrats consider he’s eyeing a run for governor in 2026. “By no means say by no means,” he instructed me, not fairly denying curiosity within the job.
As for 2024, Golden’s serenity in regards to the presidential election has much less to do together with his emotions towards the Republican nominee than his conviction that the nation can comprise Trump. “We withstood no matter he introduced at us final time round,” Golden instructed me after I pressed him to elucidate why he disagrees with Democrats who argue that Trump could be extra harmful in a second time period. “I’m skeptical that there’s some type of grand grasp plan afoot to destroy American democracy. And I’m skeptical that his many citizens suppose that’s what they’re signing up for, or that they’ll simply stand by and let their freedom and democracy be taken away by the person even when they voted for him. So, sure, I’ve numerous religion within the nation and the folks.”
Golden’s Democratic critics say that they, too, have loads of religion within the American folks. However they see his angle as dismissive towards voters who take each significantly and actually the previous president’s musings about searching for revenge towards his enemies or changing into a dictator on “day one.” “Mr. Golden can interpret it any means he desires, however he doesn’t get to lecture the remainder of us about how we interpret it,” Consultant Connolly stated.
Even at one in all Golden’s personal marketing campaign occasions, I encountered individuals who weren’t enthused about voting for him. “There’s lots of people scratching their heads proper now,” Linda Ok. Miller, a Democratic candidate for the state legislature, instructed me at a cookout that Golden hosted. Miller stated that she and different occasion loyalists felt “pressured” to help him “as a result of he’s a Democrat proper now.” As she defined, “We want these seats.”
As Golden sees it, regular individuals are extra involved about the price of groceries and residential insurance coverage than they’re in regards to the erosion of democracy. He scolded some in his occasion for attempting to say credit score for decrease inflation and a robust economic system. “It’s like, Inflation is down. Isn’t every thing nice? And individuals are like, However it’s nonetheless far more costly to stay than it was 5 years in the past.” Earlier than Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Golden started airing a marketing campaign advert that known as the president “unfit to serve a second time period” and touted his opposition to Biden’s “electric-car mandate” and pandemic stimulus package deal, each widespread Republican targets. “There’s a sense he’s giving up an excessive amount of to pander to Trump voters,” Nickie Sekera, a water conservationist operating for the state legislature, instructed me.
That advert, together with Golden’s refusal to endorse Harris, has led just a few Maine Democrats to fret that he could be making ready to go away the occasion, following the examples of Senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Golden instructed me there was no reality to the rumor, earlier than providing the strongest protection of the Democratic Get together that I had heard him give. “We’re the occasion of the working class; the occasion of working folks; the occasion standing up towards the worst excesses of free commerce; the occasion of alternative; the occasion of well being, civil rights, good governance, anti-corruption, campaign-finance reform—all these items that I’m combating for,” he stated. “That’s what being a Democrat means to me.”
Many of the Democrats I spoke with stated that they trusted Golden’s sincerity and dedication to the occasion. In addition they belief that, after three victories in a swing district, he is aware of his voters higher than they do. “He’s of his folks,” David Farmer, a longtime Democratic marketing consultant in Maine, instructed me. Farmer disagreed with Golden’s angle towards a possible Trump win, saying it mirrored the worldview of “a former Marine white male in a conventional household relationship in a extra rural a part of a rural state”: For folks “that don’t have the identical benefits because the congressman, it’s clearly an existential menace.” On the identical time, Farmer stated, Golden’s view “in all probability represents the independent-minded voters who’re instructed each 4 years that that is an important election ever. And for them, their lives change across the edges.”
Golden is now not as positive as he as soon as was that Trump will win the presidency. “It’s considerably evident that it’s a tighter race,” he instructed me. However he nonetheless has little question whom his constituents will vote for: “I can let you know Trump’s going to win my district by a wholesome margin.”
One group that disagrees with Golden’s prediction is the Harris marketing campaign. Shortly after I left Maine, I bought an surprising name from a Harris spokesperson, who insisted that the marketing campaign had no intention of ceding the district’s electoral vote to Trump. He could have gained it in each 2020 and 2016, however the Harris marketing campaign and different Democratic committees have now opened 14 area places of work in Maine; 9 of them are within the state’s Second Congressional District—Golden’s district.
A couple of days later, the College of New Hampshire launched a ballot discovering that Harris had a five-point lead within the district—simply inside the survey’s margin of error. Trump carried the district by seven factors in 2020. However earlier than he got here alongside, Democrats routinely gained it.
If Harris carries the “blue wall” swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin however loses the opposite battlegrounds, she could be one vote wanting the 270 wanted for the presidency. That last vote would extra possible come from Nebraska’s Second Congressional District, in Omaha, a wealthier, extra educated space that Biden gained by seven factors in 2020. Golden’s district presents one other route, nonetheless, which may change into essential if Nebraska Republicans enact a last-minute change that may award all of Nebraska’s electoral votes to the statewide winner.
But if they’d to decide on, nationwide Democrats would in all probability prioritize Golden’s marketing campaign in his district over Harris’s. To retake the Home, Democrats will want a web acquire of 4 seats, which might be a lot tougher if Golden loses. And Harris gained’t have the ability to get a lot executed with out a Democratic Congress.
For that purpose, Democrats in D.C. don’t appear to care a lot about Golden refusing to endorse Harris. Candidates like him spotlight the Democrats’ embrace of “genuine unbiased thinkers,” Consultant Suzan DelBene, the chair of the Home Democrats’ marketing campaign arm, instructed me once I requested her in regards to the snub. “That’s an enormous distinction between Democrats and Republicans.” The GOP, she famous, pushed out lawmakers who didn’t line up behind Trump.
Golden will possible profit from the increase in Democratic enthusiasm that Harris has generated even whereas he stands other than her marketing campaign. He’s betting that few Democrats in his district will solid votes for Harris with out additionally marking their poll for him. That has left Golden free to chase Trump voters, and he has attracted lots.
The dynamic was on show on the cookout I attended, the place the discuss turned to politics after folks had completed their burgers and “purple snapper” scorching canines. Kyle Nees, a veteran supporting Golden, wasn’t a fan of both Harris or Trump. “I don’t suppose the Founding Fathers ever wished it to be a alternative between shitty and shittier,” he instructed me. Many of the veterans Nees knew have been “hard-core Trump supporters.” “However,” Nees added, “they’re all in for Jared.”
