Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (ME-CD2) is courting Maine’s “No Labels” third-party as speculation builds over when he’ll announce what he plans to do in 2026 — and for which office he will run.
The 2026 election cycle in Maine will already include both an open gubernatorial seat and Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins vying for re-election, but the statewide political dynamic will be shaped in no small part by which race Rep. Golden chooses to enter and with which party he chooses to align himself.
Golden has yet to announce his plans publicly, but Maine political insiders have been speculating for months about whether he’ll defend his current seat from a likely challenge by former Republican Gov. Paul LePage or escape the sucking gravity of DC with a bid for the Blaine House.
Golden himself has fed speculation. He has talked openly about his disdain for the nation’s capital city and broken with the far left on issues that seem to have a stranglehold on Democrats in Maine.
On Friday, he did the unthinkable for a modern Democrat: he thanked President Donald Trump for an executive order.
All of these moves suggest Golden is pivoting toward the center, moderating some of his more liberal positions and strategically aligning with Trump, who won his district three times, on key issues, like tariffs. Similarly, Golden has backpedaled on his prior votes on LGBTQ+ issues with statements suggesting he does not support Maine’s current policy of forcing high school girls to compete against male athletes.
Golden’s dalliance with Maine’s largest third party only adds further intrigue to the mix.
A member of Maine’s “No Labels” party has told The Maine Wire that Golden participated twice this year in remote events with officials and members of the group, which bills itself as the moderate, third way in partisan politics.
Screenshots shared with The Maine Wire show Golden speaking to an audience of 200-300 people in Zoom town halls arranged by the third party on Feb. 11 and March 13, though the content of those calls was not shared.
What does it mean that Golden is lifting the hem of his blue jeans to show the less than 10,000-member No Labels party a little leg?
Perhaps Golden is looking to bring voters who are alienated by far-left Democrat Party politics back into the fold in advance of a primary fight against Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former Senate President Troy Jackson. Or perhaps he’s looking to shore up his share of the moderate voter bloc as he takes the traditional route to defend CD2 as an incumbent.
But the more interesting route — and least expected one — could be that Golden plans to use the ballot access No Labels’ has by virtue of being a recognized party in Maine to land himself in a general election showdown with whomever the Democrats and Republicans select as nominees. That route would allow Golden to preserve his money and energy on a general election fight while the Rs and Ds tear each other to shreds in what are anticipated to be highly competitive primaries.
No Labels, a 15-year-old 501(c)4 organization, has never fielded a credible statewide candidate in Maine.
The party was only certified in Maine on Jan. 4, 2024 after submitting the necessary paperwork to trigger an enrollment review by Sec. Bellows. Despite Bellows’ attempts to quash No Labels’ momentum with cease-and-desist letters accusing the party of misleading voters into enrollment, she was ultimately forced to certify them for primary and general election ballot access last year.
But Maine has a special proclivity for candidates who are not affiliated with the traditional parties stretching back a half century.
Former Gov. Jim Longley was elected as Maine’s first statewide independent in 1975, and U.S. Sen. Angus King served as an unaffiliated governor from 1995 to 2003. Although these days King is essentially a far-left progressive who just happens to have an “I” rather than a “D” behind his name, his Senate victories show that Mainers are not averse to bucking the two-party tradition.
Eliot Cutler, the centimillionaire businessman and registered sex offender, may have spoiled the tradition by twice losing to Gov. LePage in 2010 and 2014 as an independent candidate (and then pleading guilty to possessing some 80,000 images and videos containing child sexual exploitation content), but there is a viable path for Golden.
Here’s another interesting clue about where Golden’s thinking may be: In his 2024 re-election race, Golden received a max contribution of $6,600 from a Texas billionaire named Harlan Crow.
Crow’s other financial contributions have gone almost entirely to Republicans — and, reportedly, No Labels.
0 Comments