Jared Golden was a 36-year-old state lawmaker, waging his first bid for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District in 2018, when his campaign released a TV ad that raised eyebrows nationally.
The ad opened with a rifle aimed at a distant bullseye as a narrator accused the Republican incumbent, Bruce Poliquin, of taking “pot shots” at Golden that were “way off target.” And it ended with Golden — a tattooed, Marine Corps veteran — shouldering his own rifle and telling viewers that unlike Poliquin, he’s a “straight shooter” — just before his shot hits the target dead-center.
Over the next five years, U.S. Rep. Golden would infuriate gun control advocates and many of his Democratic colleagues in Washington by voting against bills to expand background checks, to prohibit large-capacity ammunition clips and to ban assault-style weapons.
But on Oct. 25 of last year, a gunman killed 18 people in Golden’s hometown of Lewiston. The next day, Golden asked for forgiveness for his previous position on assault weapons and pledged action.
“Which is why I now call the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine,” Golden said during a press conference. “For the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress.”
That was one year ago.
Maine’s 2nd District is once again regarded as a key battleground in the national parties’ fight for control of the House. And Golden’s change of heart on assault weapons — in response to a mass shooting just a half-mile from his family’s home — has become a central issue in the campaign.
Republican challenger Austin Theriault — a state lawmaker from Fort Kent and former NASCAR driver — has portrayed Golden as caving to the left on gun rights.
“He flip-flopped on the Second Amendment,” Theriault said during a debate on News Center Maine. “He now supports … I don’t really know because you’ve changed it a few times, a gun registry, some sort of ban of weapons.”
And Theriault’s allies have been hammering Golden for months, like in a National Republican Congressional Committee television ad in which one speaker said he “reversed his positions on guns” and another calls the veteran “a turncoat.”
The heated rhetoric on both sides in TV ads, mailers and other messaging highlights the stakes in a race that is a top priority for both national parties.
While Democrats have occupied Maine’s 2nd District seat for all but four years since 1995, the district itself has taken a decidedly conservative turn in recent decades. Former President Donald Trump won the district in both 2016 and 2020 even as the statewide vote went to the Democratic presidential nominee.
As in other swing-district races nationwide, the candidates have been battling over issues like the economy, energy prices, the southern U.S. border, abortion and improving the economic prospects of rural America. But guns have also emerged as a top issue in the 2nd District after Golden’s shift on assault-style weapons.
Gun politics have always been complicated in Maine. The state has high rates of gun ownership yet one of the lowest rates of gun violence in the nation. And state lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have consistently rejected gun control measures adopted elsewhere in the Northeast because of Maine’s historic ties to guns and hunting.
But that dynamic shifted after last October’s mass shooting. Earlier this year, the Democratic-controlled Maine Legislature narrowly passed bills to require background checks on private gun sales and to impose a three-day waiting period on gun purchases. They also passed a ban on so-called bump stocks only to see the bill vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat from rural western Maine who, like Golden, is more moderate on gun issues than many in her party.
For his part, Golden said in May during an appearance on Maine Calling that he wasn’t impressed by the response from his former Democratic colleagues in the Maine House. Golden was a Democratic leader in the House before his election to Congress.
“I think they did the wrong things and I, in some ways, think they did too much, focused on the wrong things,” Golden said.
Instead, Golden said lawmakers should focus on the lethality of the assault-style guns used in many mass shootings.
The Lewiston gunman killed 18 and wounded 13 in just two minutes, according to an official timeline of the shooting. Golden, who served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said during a debate on WAGM-TV in Presque Isle that more people might be alive today if the gunman had a less destructive weapon.
“We’re not going to get rid of all guns. I certainly and no one here would support that,” Golden said. “But what we can do is have a conversation about how do we reduce the fatalities by getting some of these most dangerous firearms either off of the shelves or, as I have proposed, let’s have some kind of a higher threshold for the legal possession of them.”
Golden’s position has shifted since his announcement a year ago. An assault weapons ban doesn’t have the votes to pass Congress. But Golden said state legislatures could institute permitting systems that require owners or would-be buyers of assault-style to pass additional security checks beyond the standard background check. That could help ensure that these more lethal firearms are kept out of the hands of dangerous individuals.
But to groups like the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of Maine, that sounds a lot like a gun registry — and a first step toward government-run gun seizures. Both groups gave Golden an F rating this year while giving his opponent an A. The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, which is arguably the state’s most influential group on gun policy, downgraded Golden from an A to a C while giving Theriault an A.
Theriault frequently talks about the need for investments in mental health treatment to address mass shootings.
“We have to get serious and, in fact, my own party should get serious about this because it’s always something that we have struggled with,” Theriault said during a debate co-hosted by WGME and the Bangor Daily News. “But if we want to address this issue of violence and mass shootings in our country, don’t go after the Second Amendment. Let’s talk about making these investments that we have been waiting for for decades.”
Golden responded by pointing out that, as a state lawmaker, Theriault voted against a state budget this year that provided millions of dollars for additional funding for mental health services, including to the Lewiston area in response to the shooting.
Theriault’s campaign has also been playing up the gun registry angle, including in a new radio ad in which Trump says Golden would “be a disaster for your Second Amendment.”
“We have to get Golden out of there,” Trump said.
Golden has refuted the charge that he supports a “gun registry.” He has also pointed to his decade-long record of taking what he calls a “nuanced” position on guns that aims to balance the Second Amendment rights and public safety.
It’s unclear whether Golden’s shift on assault weapons will affect the 2nd District race. The limited, nonpartisan polling to date suggests that the race is too close to call. And judging by the millions of dollars they’re spending in the final weeks, the national parties and their ideological allies seem to think the seat is still up for grabs.
Golden said during a mid-October appearance on Maine Calling that he did what he thought was right in that moment last October. He said he hasn’t changed his position on the need to better-regulate assault-style weapons, despite owning them himself.
Asked how his shift on assault weapons affected the campaign, however, Golden responded: “I think we’re going to find out on the poll that matters most, which is Election Day.”
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
