U.S. Rep. Jared Golden said he’s always voted for candidates he felt would do the best job. Sometimes those candidates have been Democrats, and sometimes they’ve been Republicans, but Golden said it never mattered too much to him as long as he felt like he could trust the candidate and they would represent him well.

Golden, who recently won reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives in Maine’s 2nd District, imagines many voters followed a similar thought process when they cast a ballot for him.

“I think people generally believe I’m being honest when I say I care most about using this office and this position to try and help Maine and not to be part of some effort to further the interests of the Democratic Party,” he said Tuesday in his first postelection interview with the Press Herald.

Golden, who was in one of the most competitive races in the U.S. House this election cycle, eked out a victory over Republican challenger Austin Theriault by less than 1 percentage point after a ranked choice runoff last week. Theriault has requested a recount, although it is rare for a recount to find mistakes serious enough to change the outcome of a race.

The win puts Golden among a select group of Democrats nationally who were able to defy the odds and win in districts that also voted for President-elect Donald Trump. At the same time as Golden won his race with 50.35% of votes following the ranked choice tally, Trump won the 2nd District by a margin of 53% to 44% over Vice President Kamala Harris.

In addition to the presidency, Republicans gained control of the Senate and extended their control of the House. The results have prompted discussions among Democrats about whether they’re doing the right thing to resonate with voters.

‘THEY FEEL LIKE I’M BEING REAL’

For Golden, 42, winning as a Democrat in a Trump district isn’t new. The former U.S. Marine was first elected in 2018 then reelected in 2020 and 2022. Although Trump didn’t win the presidency in 2020, he did get one electoral vote from the 2nd District that year.

In his three terms in office, Golden has branded himself as an independent thinker willing to work across the aisle and with whoever is president, even if that approach has at times drawn the ire of his own party. Golden was the only member of Congress to cast a split vote on the decision to impeach Trump in 2019, and he was swiftly criticized last year for opposing student loan forgiveness measures.

But he has also defended abortion rights and last year called for a ban on assault rifles in the wake of the mass shooting in his hometown of Lewiston.

He said voters have seemed to appreciate his stance on certain issues, like support for labor unions and the industries in his district, including fisheries and forestry.

“Through the years I’ve had a lot of Republicans say things like, ‘I’m voting for you’ or “You’re the only Democrat I’ve voted for,’ ” Golden said. “Usually that’s because I think they feel like I’m being real with them and taking my own approach to how I’ve done this job.”

Those who work with Golden agree it’s his approach and also how he delivers his message that have allowed him to be successful as a Democrat in a right-leaning district.

“If you look at our ads and what he said in debates, he’s consistently focused on ways to improve people’s lives and realistic ways to improve their financial situation, whether that’s protecting Social Security and Medicare, pushing middle-class tax cuts or working to lower health care costs,” said Ian Russell, a Washington, D.C.-based media consultant on the Golden campaign and former deputy executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Then there’s how he says these things,” Russell said. “We’re talking about a tattooed Marine. He doesn’t look like or sound like your stereotypical Democrat. … He’s going to debates wearing flannel and a vest. It’s different than how people might expect a Congressman to look. But it’s authentic and people see that.”

A TEMPLATE FOR DEMOCRATS?

Russell, who works on advertising campaigns for candidates around the country, said Golden can provide a template for Democrats on how to reconnect with communities where they didn’t perform well. One Golden ad that was particularly effective, Russell said, highlighted a key issue for Republicans this election cycle – the economy.

“He wants to put more money in your piggy bank,” Golden’s toddler daughter says in the ad.

“It’s about being focused on lowering costs and improving people’s lives in a credible, realistic way,” Russell said.

He said Golden’s win is unusual in a polarized political climate where congressional races tend to be pulled in the same direction as the presidential race. “Golden makes it look easy, so people in Maine might not realize just how unusual it is,” Russell said.

For his part, Golden said he has been inundated with media requests since the election asking about what advice he would offer national Democrats for how to win in the Trump era. But he said it’s really too early to say what went wrong.

“I think the American people, and in particular the types of voters we’re loosing that we need to win back, they can smell bullshit, and a rush to define what happened and why and where we must go they will see as rather thin,” Golden said.  “I feel like to be true to myself and what I think about politics this is the kind of thing you have to spend months on, not days or weeks.”

However, he did say that the Democratic brand “is really bad in some parts of the country, in fact in a lot of the country.”

Some policies pursued by Democrats are not realistic or well-thought out, Golden said, citing for example energy policy and a decision by the party, at least at the national level, to “be decidedly hostile to fossil fuels.”

“We do not live in a world where at any point in time in the near-term future we will actually be able to successfully replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, at least without suffering massive consequences in regards to price of energy and accessibility and availability of power,” Golden said.

There’s also a problem with messaging. “A lot of the people who proclaim to speak for the party often talk about a lot of Americans in a kind of condescending way and I think will talk at them but not really hear them,” he said.

DISTANCE FROM PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Golden didn’t endorse Harris during his campaign and refused to say who he would vote for for president. In a July op-ed in the Bangor Daily News he predicted Trump would win and said he would be “OK” with that and would work in the best interest of Maine regardless of who occupies the White House.

Golden again would not say who he voted for Tuesday. He said he didn’t think his decision not to endorse Harris really made a difference or was something that mattered to voters.

“Why does it matter?” he said. “Donald Trump is going to be the next president of the United States, and I will work with him, or not, depending on what I think is right for the country and the state and the district.”

Mark Brewer, chair of the political science department at the University of Maine, said the decision for Golden to not endorse Harris was “probably a smart move” on his part, since Harris was seen as being a more progressive Democrat – a label that wouldn’t be popular in the 2nd District.

“Golden has always, for as long as he’s been a candidate and an incumbent in the 2nd District, shown the ability for some Republicans to vote for him as well as a large number of unenrolled voters, which is critical,” Brewer said.

“But Golden is also not your national-profile progressive Democrat. He’s more of a Blue Dog old-style Democrat and more of a centrist,” Brewer said, referring to the Blue Dog Coalition of moderate Democrats that Golden co-chairs.

FUTURE PLANS TO BE DETERMINED

Golden hasn’t been as critical of his party as some of his colleagues, such as Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, who has faced a barrage of criticism after saying Democrats “spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone” and suggesting the party should shift its approach to transgender issues.

But his takeaways mirror what some other Democrats that also won in Trump districts have said.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who won reelection in rural Washington state, said that, like Golden, she avoided letting the race be “nationalized” and instead focused on the issues important to her district.

“It’s about my loyalty to my community,” Glusenkamp Perez told the New York Times this month. “The messenger is the message in a lot of ways. My awareness of my community has been durable, and it’s reflective in my vote record.”

“I don’t know that I would proclaim that if people would just do what I do or believe what I believe that it will lead the party to some kind of resounding national victory,” Golden said.

“I think we’re bad as well at candidate recruitment and who we choose to put forward or the amount of effort we put into finding representatives who are organic to the communities they’re running to represent.”

With four elections now behind him in the 2nd District, Golden said he has “no idea” if he will eventually seek higher statewide or national office, such as governor or senator.

“I’m going to do this job for another two years,” he said. “I honestly don’t know if I will run for it again in ’26. I don’t know if I would run for a statewide office in ’26.”

He said he would like to spend more time with his family, including his two young daughters, and doesn’t want to move them to Washington.

“I’ve decided nothing is ruled in or ruled out,” Golden said. “Right now I’m spending these next couple of months organizing my legislative team around the work we think we’re going to pursue in the next six to 12 months and just making sure we’re prepared to do the best job we can for this next session of Congress.”

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