Former Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap launched a primary challenge Monday against Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden that is trying to tap Democrats' frustration with the four-term congressman's approach to President Donald Trump.
In his first ad, Dunlap criticizes Golden's opinion column last year that predicted Trump would win the presidency, that he would be "OK with that" and that warnings about threats to American democracy were overblown.
It also tries to position Dunlap as someone who will stand up to the president and highlights his battles with the president's "election integrity" commission debacle during his first term. The commission was created to find voter fraud during the 2016 election, but disbanded after it found none. Dunlap was appointed to the panel and sued for the release of its documents.
"I'm not OK with Donald Trump as president that's why I'm running for Congress. I've stopped Trump before. As your Secretary of State, I took Trump and his MAGA allies to court. And I won. I'll do the same in Congress, fighting for a people's agenda," he says in the ad.
Dunlap also expresses support for Medicare for all and universal child care.
In an interview, Dunlap said the response to his prospective campaign over the summer was "overwhelming" and unexpected.
"What I've heard from those people ... is we need to do something different, This is not working for us anymore," he said, adding that Golden has shown "a consistent trend to vote with the Republican conference on major issues."
"It just infuriates people," Dunlap said.
Golden is serving his fourth term in the U.S. House after winning several close elections. He represents Maine's conservative 2nd District, which has voted for Trump decisively in each of the three presidential elections he's been on the ballot.
In a statement, he described Dunlap as a "30-year party crony" who is trying to remake himself into a progressive Democrat.
"I’m focused on doing the job voters sent me to Congress to do. But I’ll say this: Maine’s 2nd District is fiercely independent," he said. "It’s one of the most ideologically diverse districts in the country, and deserves someone who represents it as it is. If Matt Dunlap thinks this district will choose him over Paul LePage, he’s got another thing coming.“
Golden also pointed to Dunlap's votes as a state legislator for bills that would have made women go through a waiting period before having an abortion.
" A 30-year party crony like Matt Dunlap won’t cut it — the last time Matt held elected office he was a pro-life Democrat at a time when that unfortunately wasn’t unusual," Golden said. "Watching Dunlap try to recreate himself as a progressive would be amusing if it were not so cynical.”
Golden was widely hailed by Democrats as the solution to the Trump-friendly 2nd Congressional District, but he has faced a barrage of criticism from Democrats since then and increasingly so during Trump's second term.
Golden has since sided with Trump’s tariff scheme, offering mild critiques of its deployment. He has generally avoided directly criticizing the president. That, too, has angered Democratic voters at a time when polls suggest that they want more fight from Democratic politicians against Trump’s agenda.
Still, national Democrats have repeatedly backed Golden's candidacy, including earlier this year when Dunlap first floated his potential primary challenge. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee responded by describing Golden as a “stalwart defender of Mainers’ values” who is “uniquely-suited to win tough races.”
Dunlap, in an interview, acknowledged that leaders with the DCCC tried to discourage him from running over the summer. He was unmoved by the prospect that the Democrats' leading campaign arm to win a House majority would not provide financial support for his campaign if he wins the primary. The DCCC spent more than $2 million backing Golden's candidacy last year.
"The people who really matter are the people who live here and vote here," he said. "They're the ones who have been jumping up and down for me to do this."
Golden hasn’t faced a primary since he first ran for the seat in 2018.
The Marine and combat veteran was unapologetically pro-abortion rights when he won the seat in 2019. He supported Medicare for all and knocked off Democrats’ nemesis Rep. Bruce Poliquin, defeating an incumbent in the 2nd District for the first time in more than a century. He was the first congressional candidate to win a ranked-choice election.
“I believe in our campaign we've gotten back to our Democratic Party's roots,” Golden said during his victory speech.
Golden remains an abortion-rights supporter and he opposed a GOP budget bill that slashes Medicaid, the health program for low-income people. He has backed off his support for Medicare for all, now favoring a health care model that would not ditch private insurance plans.
Golden previously said Dunlap has a small chance of beating him and “zero chance of beating Paul LePage,” the former two-time Republican governor who is now running for the 2nd District seat.
Dunlap, currently the state’s auditor, has said Golden has a communication problem with Democratic voters, especially when it came to his vote for the SAVE Act.
The Republican-backed bill ostensibly aims to prohibit noncitizens from voting in elections, but opponents have noted that noncitizen voting is a rare occurrence that’s already illegal in federal elections. No state allows it, although it is permitted in about two-dozen municipalities nationwide.
Golden's vote angered Democrats and voting rights advocates because it could present barriers for women who have changed their last name if states don’t adopt policies to get around its requirement that people provide a government-issued ID, such as a passport, alongside their birth certificate.
The bill cleared the GOP-led House, but is unlikely to get through the U.S. Senate.
In his campaign launch, Dunlap also criticized Golden for recently voting for a Republican funding bill that was designed to keep the federal government open but opposed by Democrats who wanted it to include an extension of subsidies for people who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The bill is also part of a larger fight over the Trump administration's bid to consolidate spending decisions in the executive branch, specifically appropriations bills already approved by Congress. Republicans over the summer backed a recission package proposed by the White House that clawed back $7.9 billion in funding previously approved with bipartisan support.
Golden voted against the recission bill.
More recently, Golden was the only Democrat in the House to vote for the GOP funding bill that would fund the federal government through November. He argued that shutting down the government would give Trump more power to cut the federal workforce and impose his agenda.
Maine's congressional delegation has split over the shutdown. Independent Sen. Angus King and Republican Sen. Susan Collins have taken similar positions as Golden, while Rep. Chellie Pingree has sided with the majority of the Democratic House caucus.
"I’m running because Mainers deserve a fighter who won’t cave to Donald Trump. Jared Golden said Trump is ‘OK’ and that we’ll be ‘just fine’ but Mainers are being hurt by his policies,” Dunlap said in his campaign release.
Brent Littlefield, a spokesman for LePage's congressional campaign, appeared to welcome Dunlap's entry in the race.
"Matt Dunlap sees what we see, Jared Golden is hiding. From Aroostook to Oxford and every county in between, Maine people say they never see Jared Golden in their towns or communities," Littlefield said. "Jared Golden spends more time trying to please his New York, Los Angeles and Cambridge donors than he does talking to the people of Maine."
