Libs Look to Cut Off Nose to Spite Face As Lefty Primaries One of Few Capitol Hill Dems in Deep-Red Trump Country

With a series of redistricting battles happening across the nation — particularly in California and Texas — you would think that the Democrats and Republicans would be scrambling to take every congressional seat they can get.

Instead, progressives in Maine might be looking to lose a seat — all to make a point about party purity in the post-woke era.

According to The Maine Monitor, State Auditor Matt Dunlap announced Monday that he was launching a primary competition against incumbent Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, one of the few blue representatives left in a deep-red seat.

Golden, who has run toward the center ever since his first campaign in 2018, has held onto Maine’s Second Congressional District by small but substantial enough margins each time. He won a 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent win over Republican Austin Theriault in 2024 despite the fact that Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris by a 53.8 to 44.2 percent margin in the same district.

This isn’t to say that Jared Golden is great; the best thing I can say about the guy is that we share the same last name. But the fact remains that he realizes facts, and those facts can hit his constituents hard. He’s come out against EV mandates, for sane energy policy, and has made sense on the ongoing government shutdown, too.

And, in the 2026 midterms, it’ll also be one of the swing seats under the national microscope, considering that Maine is also home to one of the few Republican senators in a Democrat-leaning state — another moderate, Sen. Susan Collins.

Dunlap, apparently, wants to torpedo both opportunities for the Democrats by reminding everyone that they’re now the AOC-Mamdani party.

“What I’ve heard from folks is they think we can do better. They’re unhappy with our current situation,” Dunlap said.

“You know, Jared Golden, people feel like he’s been bad for us. He has developed a consistency of voting with the Republican caucus on very important issues that affect real Mainers.”

This could be a problem on a number of levels. First, in the Second Congressional District, as per the Maine Monitor:

The district’s Republican lean has made national Democrats concerned that if Golden loses the primary, the party will lose the seat in the general election. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats’ campaign arm, has warned both Dunlap and Maine Democratic leadership that if Golden isn’t the nominee, it could jeopardize national investment in the race and endanger the party’s chances of winning the majority, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The likely competition the winner of the primary would face would be an old-school Tea Party favorite, former Gov. Paul LePage, who led the state from 2011 to 2019. And not only would LePage be facing a hardline progressive, Golden said, but a fake one, as well.

“A 30-year party crony like Matt Dunlap won’t cut it,” Golden said.

“The last time Matt held elected office he was a pro-life Democrat at a time when that unfortunately wasn’t unusual. Watching Dunlap try to recreate himself as a progressive would be amusing if it were not so cynical.”

Actually, it’s still pretty amusing.

Then there’s the Susan Collins factor. Despite the fact that, every six years, we’re told Collins is going to get walloped by a Democratic challenger, it hasn’t happened yet. This time, however, was actually shaping up to look scary, with popular Democratic Gov. Janet Mills rumored to be the coronated nominee if she wanted it.

I’m distinctly less fond of Mills than I am of Golden, but I’m also a realist: She’s a mainstream Democrat in a state that likes her where her only liability is her age (77), a liability which her opponent also has (72).

However — mirable dictu!, as whatever Francophone Mainers might be left in the north of the state might say — a far-left oysterman with no governmental experience but a lot of Very Bad opinions on Israel, government spending, and American military might, Graham Platner, has jumped into the Democratic field and garnered the adulation of progressive press around the world and Democratic voters in lobster country.

Not only might this keep Mills out of the race, it would bring the worst Zohran-esque elements of the party out on primary day — meaning that both Platner and Dunlap would help each other.

To which I say: Great! I’m willing to take that bet. Platner is worrying but will likely be no materially different than Mills in terms of votes. And, as for Dunlap, he’s unelectable in a district where Golden is barely electable. After a summer of scrambling to gerrymander as many Democratic seats as possible in states where the left is in control, they might be about to give one away. Go get ’em, team.

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