Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd Congressional District cast the deciding vote on April 16 against a war powers resolution that would have formally instructed President Trump to cease ongoing military operations against Iran and withdraw all forces except in the case of an imminent attack. His vote against the measure put him at odds with every other House Democrat, including Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, another moderate with whom Golden introduced a bill that would have resulted in a narrower curtailment of Trump’s powers.
Golden’s vote meant that the resolution was defeated even though one Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted against the bill while another, Ohio’s Warren Davidson, abstained. In a press statement issued on April 16, Golden said that his vote was motivated by concerns over national security, suggesting that the resolution would “weaken our hand” as tense, off-and-on negotiations continue between the two countries.
This most recent vote by Golden, who is the House Democrat that represents Maine’s most Republican district, is far from the first to put him at odds with the overwhelming majority of Democratic legislators or the former Biden administration. Golden opposed numerous legislative priorities, from a COVID-19 relief program in the early days of Biden’s term to the Build Back Better Act, one of Biden’s signature legislative proposals.
Golden also often skipped Democratic caucus meetings and split his vote on the two counts to impeach President Trump in 2019, making him the sole Democratic member of the House to have done so.
Perhaps most infamously, following President Biden’s debate performance that may have led to the incumbent president relinquishing his bid for a second term, Golden released an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News entitled “Donald Trump is going to win the election and democracy will be just fine.” The representative correctly predicted a Trump victory in that year’s presidential election, but said that Democrats “pearl-clutching” about the possibility were “[ignoring] the strength of our democracy,” pointing to the fact that Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election ultimately failed.
Golden received backlash from Democrats for his position in his op-ed at the time; Amy Roeder, a Democrat from Bangor who serves in the Maine House and is currently running for the Maine Senate, called Golden’s sentiment “naive” in a statement for the Maine Morning Star — while Pamela Proulx-Curry of the Maine MultiCultural Center in Bangor labeled his stance “seriously mistaken.”
Once again, the response to his recent war powers resolution vote was swift among liberals and progressives alike. Ethan Strimling, a progressive activist who once served as mayor of Portland, Maine, scathingly attacked the representative in the left-leaning Maine Beacon, saying that Golden “continues to vote against the interests of Maine and the country.” Strimling stated that “Thankfully, all the Democrats now running for the seat see it more as most Mainers do,” referring to the crowded Democratic primary to succeed Golden as U.S. Representative.
Jordan Wood, a former congressional staffer residing in Bristol, is one of the candidates running for the seat to whom Strimling refers. In a written statement to the Maine Campus, Wood offered his thoughts on the ongoing war and Trump’s actions.
“Trump’s war with Iran has been a mistake from the start and I would vote to end it immediately. He’s never properly explained to the American people why we’re fighting or defined how we get out,” said Wood. “We are sick of forever wars that cost billions of our tax dollars and the lives of our service members.”
Paige Loud, a social worker and current UMaine graduate student making her first run for elected office, said she too would have voted for the resolution “not just because this particular war is an unlawful war, but because I believe all wars are immoral, especially when those wars cost billions of dollars that should otherwise be spent keeping people fed, housed and healthy here at home.”
Loud also explained how she plans to contrast Golden’s approach to matters of conflict if elected.
“As the first Indigenous congresswoman from Maine, I will oppose imperialism and wars of aggression at every turn because destabilizing regions around the globe doesn’t protect our troops [or] our interests here in America,” said Loud. “It especially doesn’t protect our environment—which all of us on this planet need to protect for our survival.”
State Auditor Matt Dunlap of Old Town and Sen. Joe Baldacci of Bangor, who are also running in the Democratic primary, did not respond to requests for comment.
Dissent extended to figures on the UMaine campus. Maeve Durkee, who leads the UMaine Progressives student organization, shared the disappointment of Wood and Loud expressed regarding Golden’s voting record
“I think it’s shameful that someone who is ostensibly a Democrat would vote against his party and against the Constitution to extend Trump’s senseless war,” said Durkee. While the Progressives have not made an endorsement in the upcoming primary, Durkee added that she is “happy that we will have a better slate of options this time around.”
