Typically, incumbency is a benefit for a political candidate. It's much more difficult to unseat someone than to hold onto a seat. That's especially true when you're a Democrat who runs for office in a blue district.
Maine Rep. Jared Golden is one of those fortunate souls. And yet, a key flip-flop--over the issue of guns--has at least some of his constituents wondering if maybe he needs to sit down.
Now, typically, a gun control-supporting Democrat is as common as hydrogen in the universe. It's just not hard to find it. But Golden holds office in Maine, a rare state where they vote Democrat much of the time but still like their guns.
Golden held that position as well, allowing him to easily win his last two campaigns, but following the shooting in Lewiston, Golden flipped, and some voters aren't happy with him.
Skip Works was the type of voter who helped make Jared Golden a rarity in US Congress.
A registered Democrat, Works says he actually leans Republican because of the Second Amendment. He voted for former president Donald Trump in 2020, and plans to again this year. He’s been a Golden voter, too, backing the Lewiston Democrat in New England’s only congressional district to vote for Trump four years ago, and one of only a handful Trump-won districts represented by a Democrat in the US House.
“I liked the idea that he’s an old-fashioned Democrat,” Works, 68, said as he lounged on a bench at the Fryeburg Fair this month. He spoke in the past tense because, Works said, he was a Golden voter — until the third-term congressman reversed his stance on an assault weapons ban following a deadly mass shooting in Lewiston.
“I’m a sportsman,” the Fairfield resident said. “I love my guns.”
...
“Jared Golden flip-flopped,” said Ben Dyer, who was injured in last year’s mass shooting at Lewiston’s Schemengees Bar & Grille. Dyer said he is a gun owner and grew up in Aroostook County. He said he’s leaning toward backing Theriault, in part because he doesn’t agree that an assault weapons ban is the answer to the type of shooting he survived a year ago.
“At one point I voted for him,” Dyer said of Golden. “But to see someone flip-flop is not OK.”
Golden is in the political fight of his life, with him currently trying to win over Trump voters, which isn't exactly an easy thing for a Democrat to do. Especially an anti-gun Democrat.
Sure, he's not as vocally anti-gun as many of his fellow Democrats, but anti-gun is anti-gun. Once an official starts talking gun control, the question then becomes where does it end? Far too many of them say they just want what they call "commonsense" restrictions but that always includes whatever just passed plus a few that are still needed. It doesn't matter what laws just passed, either. There are always a few more.
If Golden loses, I'm sure he'll have a ton of reasons why, but my question is whether he's self-aware to see how flipping on guns alienated a lot of people who previously supported him. If he stays true to the Democratic form, he won't.
Which, frankly, will just be hilarious.