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A moderate Democratic congressman who Republicans consider one of the most vulnerable House Democrats running for re-election next year is now facing a primary challenge from the left.
Maine state auditor Matt Dunlap on Monday launched a 2026 bid for the U.S. House in Maine's 2nd Congressional District against four-term Democratic Rep. Jared Golden.
The announcement by Dunlap complicates Golden's bid for re-election in a mostly rural district that President Donald Trump comfortably carried in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections. And it gives Republicans further hope they can flip one of their top-targeted districts in next year's midterms as they aim to not only defend but expand their fragile House majority.
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Golden is currently facing off with former two-term Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who right now has a clear glidepath to the GOP nomination in Maine, and the race between LePage and Golden is expected to be extremely competitive.
"There's bad and even worse. Jared Golden and Paul LePage," the narrator in Dunlap's campaign launch video argues.
The narrator highlights that "Golden voted against unemployment benefits, child tax credits, and more affordable healthcare" and that "Golden even said he was ‘OK with’ Donald Trump becoming president again.
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Dunlap, speaking to the camera, says: "I'm not OK with Donald Trump as president. That's why I'm running for Congress."
And he touted that during his tenure as Maine Secretary of State, "I took Trump and his MAGA allies to court and I won."
Golden, a U.S. Marine veteran who served combat tours in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and who was first elected to Congress in 2018, has a history of bucking House Democratic leadership.
The most recent example: Golden broke ranks last month to vote with Republicans on a GOP-crafted funding bill to avert a government shutdown. The measure was later blocked by Senate Democrats, which triggered the current federal government shutdown.
Golden defended his vote at the time and said that the shutdown "is the result of hardball politics driven by the demands far-left groups are making for Democratic Party leaders to put on a show of their opposition to President Trump."
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And in a statement Monday following Dunlap's entry into the race, Golden said he represents a district that is "fiercely independent…it’s one of the most ideologically diverse districts in the country, and deserves someone who represents it as it is."
"If Matt Dunlap thinks this district will choose him over Paul LePage, he’s got another thing coming," Golden argued in the statement. "A 30-year party crony like Matt Dunlap won’t cut it."
Many national Democrats believe that Golden is uniquely positioned to hold the seat in Maine's 2nd Congressional District, which is geographically the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi River.
And a Democratic source familiar with the race confirmed to Fox News that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee "expressed to both Dunlap and state party leadership that unless Golden is the nominee, it could jeopardize the seat, national investment in Maine, and therefore the path to the majority."
The rival National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) quickly weighed in on the development in the Democratic primary.
"Democrat Matt Dunlap's entrance into this race proves what we've been saying all along: Serial Flip-Flopper Jared Golden has betrayed Mainers at every turn, and his own party is done with his spineless, self-serving ways. Golden has got to go, and even Democrats know it," NRCC Spokeswoman Maureen O'Toole claimed in a statement.
And Maine GOP Chairman Jim Deyermond, in a statement, argued that "for years, ordinary Mainers have been left behind by Jared Golden as he flip-flops to try and hold his seat. Golden almost never makes a public appearance in Maine and often leaves people wondering where he is."
Fox News' Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report
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