Maine Rep. Jared Golden wins re-election, defeating Austin Theriault

Representative Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat who supported an assault weapons ban in a conservative, rural district, was re-elected to a fourth term. The Associated Press declared Golden the winner on Friday, 10 days after Election Day, after a second round of rankings.

Golden, a Marine combat veteran, defeated Republican state Rep. Austin Theriault, a former professional race car driver.

“Whatever the attacks are from one election to the next, you know who I am, I know who I am. I won’t forget where I came from,” Golden said during a televised candidates forum in October. “And I will continue to be the same kind of member I have been for the last six years — which is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress.”

Since Golden, co-chair of the centrist Blue Dog Caucus, is one of only five House Democrats representing seats that Donald Trump held in 2016 and 2020, he could be a model for Democrats hoping to compete in rural areas with a MAGA -shade red.

Golden, a self-described “progressive conservative,” is a supporter of abortion rights and a relative economic populist who also supports law enforcement and strict border security, and has opposed President Joe Biden’s regulations on the lobster industry. He was the only Democrat in the House of Representatives to vote against the sweeping Build Back Better Act, but in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act — the scaled-back bill that became law — which included a cap on insulin costs for seniors, which Golden now features in his ads mentions.

Golden, a concealed weapon carrier and sportsman, also once opposed major new gun control regulations. But after a gunman used an assault rifle to slaughter eighteen people in Golden’s hometown of Lewiston in October 2023, he spoke out in favor of a ban on the sale of those types of weapons while still opposing other gun restrictions.

Golden’s stance prompted the National Rifle Association to give him an “F” grade, as well as attacks from Theriault that cast doubt on Golden’s commitment to the Second Amendment.

But HuffPost’s September report when Theriault called the police on a man legally carrying an assault rifle on his own porch, undermining Theriault’s credentials as a champion of the Second Amendment. Gold too a TV advertisement aired with a former chief of the Maine State Police, who testifies to Golden’s support for gun rights, among other things.

In the latter stretch, national Republican groups chose not to focus on gun policy and instead sought to portray Golden as soft on illegal immigration.

Golden could point to a history of pressuring Biden Restore title 42a pandemic-era rule that allowed border enforcement authorities to turn away asylum seekers.

Golden, who declined to say how he plans to vote in the presidential election, found other high-profile ways to distance himself from the national Democratic Party. After Biden’s disastrous late June debate with Trump, Golden memorably wrote one opinion column In early July, he predicted that Biden would lose and that “democracy would run just fine.”

“I believe Trump will be in the White House in 2025,” Golden wrote. “Maine’s representatives will have to work with him when it benefits Mainers, hold him accountable when it doesn’t, and work independently across the aisle no matter what.”

View the full results of the Maine House elections here.