Maine Democratic Rep Jared Golden faces primary challenger after voting for GOP funding bill

Starting Monday, Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is facing a primary challenger after he broke with his party and voted for the GOP funding bill to avert a government shutdown last month.

Maine State Auditor Matthew Dunlap is challenging Golden in a district that Democrats will likely need to hold to regain control of the U.S. House in next year's elections, CNN reported. 

The state's 2nd Congressional District is one of the most competitive in the country, as Golden won his race last year by less than a percentage point and President Donald Trump carried it by about 10 points.

Dunlap told CNN before his campaign announcement that Democrats are “very, very disenchanted with Jared,” and that Golden exaggerates the difficulty of winning the district.

“It’s not a hostile wilderness. These are my neighbors and friends. I know them well, and I feel welcome in every community in the state,” Dunlap said.

Golden said his district is “fiercely independent.”

“It’s one of the most ideologically diverse districts in the country, and deserves someone who represents it as it is,” he said.

Golden was the only Democrat who voted for the GOP funding bill, which passed the House of Representatives but was blocked by Senate Democrats.

He said that the shutdown “is the result of hardball politics driven by the demands far-left groups are making for Democratic Party leaders to put on a show of their opposition to President Trump.”

Dunlap also noted Golden’s support earlier this year for the GOP's SAVE Act on election integrity, which would have required proof of citizenship to vote, saying that it was “just inexplicable to me.”

“I feel like we have one of the best election systems in the country,” said Dunlap, who served as Maine’s secretary of state from 2005 to 2011 and again from 2013 to 2021. “People ask me about the SAVE Act vote, and I said, well, it really wasn’t a tipping point, but it was a weathervane. It told me where people are.”

Golden called Dunlap a “30-year party crony” who was trying “to recreate himself as a progressive.”