The democratic primary challenge complicates the re -election offer from Maine de Golden

A member of the Moderate Democratic Congress that the Republicans consider one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Chamber who present themselves to a re -election next year is now faced with a main challenge of the left.

Maine’s state auditor Matt Dunlap launched an offer in 2026 on Monday for the American Chamber in the 2nd district of the Maine Congress against the Democratic representative with four mandates Jared Golden.

Dunlap’s announcement complicates Golden’s candidacy for re -election in a mainly rural district that President Donald Trump has comfortably worn in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 elections. And this gives Republicans more hope that they will be able to return one of their most targeted districts in the middle of next year, because they not only have to defend but also extend their fragile majority.

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Democratic representative Jared Golden, who represents the second district of the Maine Congress, is now faced with a main challenge when he seeks to be re -elected in the middle of 2026. ((AP photo / David Sharp, file))

Golden is currently faced with the former Republican governor with two mandates Paul Lepage, who currently has a clear playing path to the appointment of the GOP in Maine, and the race between Lepage and Golden should be extremely competitive.

“There is bad and worse. Jared Golden and Paul Lepage”, the narrator in Dunlap Campaign launch video plead.

The narrator underlines that “Golden voted against unemployment benefits, children’s tax credits and more affordable health care” and that “Golden even said that he” agreed with “Donald Trump again again.

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Dunlap, speaking to the camera, said: “I do not agree with Donald Trump as president. That is why I run for the congress.”

And he praised that during his mandate as Secretary of State of Maine, “I took Trump and his Allies Maga in court and I won”.

The Maine State auditor Matt Dunlap is the main challenge of Democratic representative Jared Golden in the second district of the Congress of the State Congress (Matt Dunlap for Congress)

Golden, an American veteran who served combat visits to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who was first elected to the Congress in 2018, has a history of democratic leadership of the Chamber.

The most recent example: Golden broke the ranks last month to vote with the Republicans on a financing bill designed by the GOP to avoid a government closure. The measure was then blocked by the Democrats of the Senate, who triggered the current closure of the federal government.

Golden defended his vote at the time and said that the closure “is the result of the hard ball policy motivated by the demands of far left groups for the leaders of the Democratic Party to expose their opposition to President Trump”.

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And in a press release Monday after the entry of Dunlap into the race, Golden said that it represents a district which is “fiercely independent … It is one of the most diverse districts of the country and deserves someone who represents it as it is.”

“If Matt Dunlap thinks that this neighborhood will choose it rather than Paul Lepage, he has something to come,” said Golden in the press release. “A 30 -year -old boy like Matt Dunlap will not cut him.”

Former republican governor Paul Lepage du Maine, interviewed by Fox News Digital on May 7, 2025 in Lewiston, Maine, appeared for the American house in 2026 in the 2nd district of the State Congress (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)

Many national democrats believe that Golden is only placed to hold the seat of the 2nd district of the Maine Congress, which is geographically the largest district of Congress in the east of Mississippi.

And a democratic source familiar with the breed confirmed to Fox News that the campaign committee of the Democrating Congress “expressed both Dunlap and the leadership of the State Party that, unless Golden is the candidate, he could compromise the seat, the national investment in Maine, and therefore the path to the majority”.

The National Rival Committee of the Republican Congress (NRCC) quickly weighed on the development of democratic primary.

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“The entry of the Democrat Matt Dunlap into this race proves what we have said from the start: the Jared Golden standard switch betrayed the Mainers in each turn, and its own party is made with its spin and selfish tracks.

And the president of Maine Gop, Jim Deyermond, in a statement, argued that “for years, the ordinary mainers were left by Jared Golden while he talks to try to hold his seat. Golden almost never makes a public appearance in Maine and often leaves people wondering where he is.”

Deirdre Heavey de Fox News contributed to this report