Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), one of the most centrist Democrats in Congress, predicted his party would lose the White House this fall but added “I'm OK with that.”
“While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win,” he wrote in an op-ed in The Bangor Daily News. “Unlike [President Joe] Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system.”
He urged everyone to “ignore the chattering class’s scare tactics and political pipedreams. We don’t need party insiders in smoke-filled back rooms to save us. We can defend our democracy without them.” If Trump wins, Golden noted Maine's representatives would have to work with the Republican's administration.
Golden's district voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, awarding the former president an electoral vote given Maine's unique system. He is now serving his third term in the House.
Austin Theriault, Golden's GOP opponent in the fall, called the op-ed "a very phony attempt to avoid accountability" in a social media post. "Simple questions for Jared Golden: Does he support Joe Biden for President or not? Does Golden believe Biden is mentally competent or not? He won’t say, because he puts politics ahead of Mainers," Theriault wrote.
