After months of speculation he would run for governor, Rep. Jared Golden put rumors to rest by announcing Tuesday he’ll run for a fifth two-year term in Congress. He also ended any chance he’d instead try to defeat Sen. Susan Collins, who’s seeking a sixth six-year term.

Ever since the Lewiston Democrat won the 2nd District seat in 2018 in the only consequential ranked-choice election to date — he finished behind incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin in the first round, ousted him in the second — he’s been an unpredictable and sometimes mystifying figure.

Collins, after she opposed President Donald Trump in 2016, kept quiet in both the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, a sound example. Yet Golden found it necessary to quip that Trump “is going to win [and] I’m OK with that.”

Even now, Golden avoids criticizing Trump as he careens through the executive branch and repeatedly invades congressional territory, with well over 80 federal court decisions finding his firings and impoundments illegal, and no substantive decision in Trump’s favor.

Nonetheless, Golden begins his reelection campaign in far better shape than he could reasonably expect, thanks to two recent announcements.

First, former GOP Gov. Paul LePage announced he’s moving back to Maine to run against Golden after spending most of the last seven years in Florida. A week later, current State Auditor Matt Dunlap said he was exploring a primary challenge.

Let’s just say neither matches up well against the incumbent congressman.

LePage is probably the one Republican Democrats can be counted on to vote against vs. Golden. The many outraged Democrats in the 1st District and skeptical Democrats in the 2nd District who’d never support him for governor will be united by their distaste for LePage.

Whatever enthusiasm LePage once aroused among Republicans — he was “The Man” in both the 2010 and 2014 elections for governor — has long since dissipated.

His 2022 comeback bid against Gov. Janet Mills was a disappointment. He never showed any commitment to a third-term program, and disavowed one of his signature “achievements,” denying Medicaid enrollment to thousands of Mainers even after voters enacted a 2017 referendum ordering him to do so. Mills fixed this on her first day in office.

Moving to Florida once might be overlooked by the faithful. Doing so twice and then listing his home address as a commercial building in Augusta owned by his sometime collaborator Shawn Moody is hardly reassuring.

In his post-gubernatorial candidacies, LePage resembles no one so much as Joe Brennan, another two-term governor who, after considerable success in Augusta, went on to run and run and run.

Brennan lost no fewer that three major races, to the surprisingly reelected Gov. John McKernan in 1990, to Angus King in 1994 as King became only the second independent elected Maine governor, and to Susan Collins in 1996, when she won her first Senate term.

The result: Collins and King are now in the U.S. Senate, Collins serving her fifth term and King his third; no Democrat has been elected since 1988.

LePage’s losses aren’t quite as consequential, at least not yet, but the 2022 nomination could have gone to a younger Republican then positioned for a 2026 campaign.

Republicans are unlikely to have a good year; as almost all presidents do, Trump lost seats in 2018, including control of the House and barely holding the Senate with a 50-50 tie.

Nonetheless, plenty of younger Republicans are itching for a chance, including state Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, who’s flirted with bids already.

Dunlap’s candidacy is also good news for Golden. They appeal to the same party quadrant, and Dunlap hasn’t burned up the turf previously. His one previous statewide run was for U.S. Senate in 2012, after Olympia Snowe retired, losing the Democratic primary to the lightly regarded Cynthia Dill, who finished a distant third to King in November.

Dunlap did reasonably well in two stints as secretary of state, but a third try seems out of the question; he seems miscast as auditor.

Whether Dunlap stays in or not, Golden will likely win the primary. As Golden says, the priority is taking back Congress, and a four-term incumbent is a better bet.

LePage will keep other GOP aspirants out, but at 76, he contrasts poorly with Golden, 42. Voters nationwide are serving notice a geriatric Congress isn’t what they want.

LePage, like Brennan before him — who served two terms in Congress before heading back to Maine — made it perfectly clear on leaving the Blaine House he had no interest “going Washington.”

Jared Golden, whose political future seemed cloudy just two weeks ago, may now permit himself a very slight smile.