In the power struggle over the $ 1.9 billion COVID relief package, Representative Jared Golden stood alone from the rest of his party.
The two-term legislature representing the 2nd Congress District of Maine was last week the only House Democrat to vote against the massive spending bill, as it passed its last legislative stumbling block in the party before being signed by President Biden.
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Golden was an early opponent of the move by his party’s congressional leadership to advance the bill through budget reconciliation, which passed the legislation only by Democratic votes and avoided the filibuster threshold by 60 votes in the Senate. And Golden was one of only two Democrats – along with Representative Kurt Schrader of Oregon – who voted against the emergency relief package in late February when he removed his first hurdle from the house.
The congressman explained his opposition and wrote: ‘I know there are people who will need help to get through the final stages of this pandemic, and therefore I argued that Congress should have addressed their needs with a purposeful bill that extend unemployment benefits. , finances the distribution of vaccines and increases investment in our public health infrastructure. ‘
On this April 27, 2019, the file photo, representative Jared Golden, D-Maine, speaks in Bath, Maine. Golden was the only Democratic lawmaker to break with his party and on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, voted against the $ 1.9 billion COVID-19 aid package. (AP Photo / David Sharp, File)
((AP Photo / David Sharp, file))
The congressman stressed that ‘combined with the more than $ 4 trillion we have already spent fighting the coronavirus, borrowing and spending hundreds of billions more to meet the most urgent needs, it poses a risk to our economic recovery. and the priorities I want to work with the Biden administration, such as rebuilding our country’s infrastructure and repairing our broken and unaffordable healthcare system. ‘
Golden was also the only House Democrat last week to vote against a bill that would extend the background check on all commercial gun sales. And he was one of only two Democrats – along with Ron Kind of Wisconsin – to vote against another measure that would close the ‘Charleston loophole’, which could go through some licensed gun sales before a required background study is completed. Using the gap, Dylann Roof was able to legally purchase a weapon he used in 2015 at nine people in a historic Black church in Charleston, SC.
Noting that ‘many of my constituents have a proud tradition of responsible gun ownership’, Golden stressed that ‘we must strictly enforce the laws we already have to keep firearms out of the hands of criminal offenders and pass the existing background test. system with the resources, technology and personnel needed to work efficiently and without errors. “
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Earlier this year, he also voted against the Democrats’ police reform bill.
Golden District’s Congress District – the largest east of the Mississippi River – contains a number of small towns, including Auburn, Bangor and Lewiston, but is mostly rural. Former President Trump won the district in 2016 – and again took it by seven points in his defeat for re-election in 2020.
Golden, a Marine veteran deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq, won the district neatly in 2018 when Democrats regained the House majority for the first time in eight years. He becomes the first member of Congress to be elected by rank. The congressman won a seven-point re-election last November, surpassing then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the district by nearly 30,000 votes.
While Golden attracted national attention for breaking up his party, Golden also supported other major Democratic initiatives that mostly passed the House along party lines.
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Last week, Golden voted for the PRO Act (Protecting the Right to Organize), a comprehensive bill that would promote the rights of unions and union workers.
And last week, he backed HR 1, a comprehensive election and campaign funding reform measure.
Because Republicans of the House need a net gain of just five seats to win back the majority in the 2022 interim, Golden is already being attacked by the National Republican Congressional Committee as well as outside groups of the IDP.
The conservative advocacy group, the American Action Network, has been to digital advertising about the legislature’s support for what it called ‘the corrupt Liberal Campaign Funding Bill’.
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The same group hosted digital ads in Golden’s district last week – before the final vote on the COVID aid package.
“Tell Golden, brake on Pelosi’s plan,” the narrator said in the spot.
Golden’s voices, which are at odds with his party’s leadership, also spoke on social media about the possibility of a Democratic primary challenge next year.
The first possible long-term challenge came last week when Michael Sutton, a Bangor Democrat who previously unsuccessfully elected him to city council and state representative, submitted paperwork to the Federal Electoral Commission to show he intends to run for Golden. pack.