Political Note #575 Jared Golden Maine 02

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July 18^th , 2023 Political Note #575 Jared Golden Maine 02

2024 General Election

Jared Golden is and has been a Democratic running in a Republican leaning Congressional district. HIs winning reelection is big part of the Democratic effort to regain control Congress. Prior to the resignation of Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline, Democrats had 213 Members of Congress, Republicans had 222. If Democrats can flip a net of 5 seats in the 2024 election, they will regain control of the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court mandated redistricting in Alabama, Louisiana, and elsewhere offers Democrats hope. Redistricting that may be allowed by the North Carolina Supreme Court could be offset by redistricting allowed by the New York Court of Appeals. Keeping endangered Members of Congress like Jared Golden in the House is at least as important as redistricting.

Jared Golden remains the only Member of Congress to have been elected by Ranked Voting. That system was used for the first time in Maine in 2018. Without Ranked Voting, Jared Golden would not be the Congressman from Maine’s Second Congressional District. In 2018, the Republican candidate led after the votes were counted, but he did not have a majority. When third and fourth place candidates’ votes were redistributed, Jared Golden gained a majority, was elected to Congress, and is still there.

Donald Trump carried the district in 2020 and again in 2022. After the 2018 election, as he had promised in his campaign, Jared Golden did not vote for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker. He has remained a contrarian Democrat. He was one of three Democrats voting against Article II to impeach Trump in the first trial. He was one of two Democrats to oppose the American Rescue Plan. He was concerned about its cost.

There is more. He is one of the nine Democrats who pressed for an immediate vote on the bipartisan infrastructure plan. The leadership had wanted the infrastructure plan and the budget reconciliation to be addressed at that same time. Opposed to the elimination of the cap on the SALT tax deduction and to the failure to include prescription drug pricing reform, he was the only Democrat to vote against a version of Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act.

Jared Golden was the only Democrat to oppose expanded background checks for gun purchases and one of only two Democrats to oppose other gun restriction measures. He was one of two Democrats to oppose student loan debt cancellation when that proposal was before Congress. He was one of a handful of Democrats to support ending vaccine mandates and ending the Covid emergency early. A former intern for Republican Senator Susan Collins, he has said he would never campaign against her.

Republicans do not claim that Jared Golden’s contrarian votes and positions are cynical; intended to curry favor with Republicans and conservatives in his district. Democrats and Republicans alike understand that these positions reflect who Jared Golden is. Being a Democrat also reflects his views. He is just not a mainstream Democrat.

Jared Golden supports campaign reforms ranging from a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United to limiting partisan gerrymandering. He would expand voting rights and minimize the corrupting influence of money in politics. He advocates more comprehensive health care reform and protections for social security. He is an ally of labor, supporting the infrastructure act as mentioned above as well as a variety of steps that would strengthen unions. He supports the climate change goals of the Paris accord as well as various conservation measures. Maybe, if the Republicans were a more responsible party; more like Eisenhower’s Republican party, Jared Golden would be a Republican. Not necessarily, though.

Jared Golden grew up in Maine – on the golf course that his parents owned. The private golf course was open to the public and was a serious enough course to be used for tournaments. Jared Golden spent his summers with the workers, taking care of the golf course. He got on with the workers and the golfers. When he was outdoors on the golf course, he seemed to be where he belonged.

When it was time to go to college, Jason Golden went local – to Farmington State, thinking he might become a teacher. After 9/11, he dropped out and joined the Marines. He was trained to carry a rocket launcher and an assault rifle. Instead of being in Farmington, he was in Afghanistan and Iraq where he had a tough war.

Jared Golden recalls being in a fighting hole on a mountain top in Afghanistan waiting for air assistance. He recalls his unit in Iraq being hit by an Improvised Explosive Devise and a friend getting wood fragments in his eyes. He recalls firefights in Iraq, house to house searches for weapons, and his commander being asked why he was still there after Hussein was out of office.

The diagnosis, when Jared Golden came home, was Post Traumatic Stress. He had terrifying dreams; he would be startled by noise. He got drunk. His father described him as floundering. He worked – but at low wage jobs. Famously (at least in Maine), one of those jobs was at a pizza joint in Lewiston frequented by Bates College students and faculty.

Jared Golden had begun thinking – maybe he could go to a college like Bates. That would give him a future. He told his boss. His boss told one of the regular patrons – Bates Dean of Admissions. The Dean interviewed Jared Golden. Not exactly an interview, the Dean began chatting with him while buying pizza. Jared Golden told his story – interestingly, persuasively. He was encouraged to apply and was admitted to Bates with enough financial aid and work/study aid to make that admission possible for him.

On work/study, Jared Golden was a janitor at Bates. He majored in politics and had interesting conversations with fellow students. He studied Pashto and defended the military. He took a summer job in Afghanistan helping teens. And he graduated.

After graduation, Jared Golden worked in Baghdad for an international logistics company. He moved offices from one place to another. Then he moved himself to Washington to work for Senator Susan Collins. He remained a Democrat, though. That may have been his father’s influence. His father had been a John F. Kennedy follower.

Jared Golden returned to work for Democrats in Maine’s capital, Augusta. He ran for State Rep from Lewiston in 2014 and won. He got married and bought a house for less than $100,000. He became part of the Democratic leadership in the Maine House of Representatives and, in 2018, ran for Congress.

In Congress, Jared Golden has retained the support of labor organizations and earned the support of NARAL and LGBTQ organizations. His support for expanded access to mental health services and child care for veterans has been consistent with the goals of veterans’ groups. In the face of the January 6 effort to vitiate the 2020 election, he said he would stay at the Capitol until the results of the election were certified. Afterwards, he urged a non-partisan investigation of what happened. There are few Members of Congress less likely to be accused of being partisan than Jared Golden.

We need Jared Golden in Congress. We need him to create a Democratic majority. We need him to help Democrats learn how to win Republican districts. And we need him so Democrats will consider what he has to say about policy and politics. Help Jared Golden win this election.

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