Jared Golden

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Jared Golden (2019)

Jared F. Golden (born July 25, 1982 in Leeds , Maine ) is an American Democratic Party politician . He has represented Maine's 2nd Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives since 2019 . The former soldier was previously a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 2014 .

Family, education and work

Golden grew up in Leeds, Maine, where his parents Joe and Jeannine ran a public golf course. His father had been a Democrat since John F. Kennedy , his mother only began to be interested in politics after Donald Trump was elected president. Jared Golden helped out a lot on the golf course with his two siblings and attended Leavitt Area High School . His father describes him as a good but not outstanding student who communicated well and did a lot of sports. Golden, whose two grandfathers had served in World War II , wondered if he should pursue military service and was deeply impressed by the movie Saving Private Ryan . Since his parents were against it, he decided to become a history teacher and studied from 2001 at the University of Maine in Farmington . There he had mediocre grades and did not take part in student life. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and talks with recruiters, he joined the United States Marine Corps in October 2002 and, after completing his basic training on Parris Island, served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan . In 2005, Golden received the Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal for his service in Operation Steel Curtain . After his return and discharge from service in 2006, he showed PTSD symptoms and was caught under the influence of alcohol (0.09 per mille) at the wheel.

Golden returned to Maine in 2006, taking on several low-paying jobs, and also working nights and weekends to make a living. Among other things, he worked in a pizza restaurant in Auburn , where the manager introduced him to the admission professor at the private Bates College , who recommended him. Golden was accepted there in 2007 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and History in 2011. In 2008/09 he was a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve and in 2009, after learning Pashto, taught at the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA). After doing an internship at the logistics company Paxton International in 2010, he joined the company as a regional representative in 2011 and traveled for them in the Middle East . From 2011, Golden worked for Republican Senator Susan Collins , first on the US House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security until 2012 and as a legislative officer in 2013. In 2013-14 he worked in a similar capacity for the Democrats in the House of Representatives from Maine. At first, politics didn't play a big role for Golden, according to a later self-testimony, but he realized during this work that he tended more towards the Democrats.

Golden lives in Lewiston , Maine with his wife Isobel, whom he met on his first political candidacy . They married in 2015. In the same year she won a seat on Lewiston City Council, and in 2018 she studied law. Growing up in a not very religious family, he describes himself as a spiritual person.

Political career

In November 2014, Golden was elected to the Maine House of Representatives for the first time with 66.2 percent of the vote , and from December 2014 represented the 60th electoral district with parts of Lewiston. Re-elected in 2016 with 71.6 percent, his mandate ran until December 2018. From 2017 he was Assistant Majority Floor Leader , which corresponds to the leadership position of a whip of the democratic majority parliamentary group. He chaired the Elections and Rules of Procedure committees and was a member of the Transport and Veterans Committees.

In August 2017, Golden announced that it was running for the 2018 United States House of Representatives in Maine's 2nd Congressional constituency . The rural, largely white- populated congressional electoral district is the largest east of the Mississippi River and is considered one of the most balanced in the United States; while Barack Obama won it in 2008 and 2012, Donald Trump won it in the 2016 presidential election . Golden won his party's primary election on June 12, 2018 with 54.3 percent of the vote. In the main election campaign against the Republican mandate holder Bruce Poliquin , Golden was supported by the Republican MP Tom Saviello in order to make his distance from party politics clear. In mid-October 2018, the candidates and Super PACs unaffiliated with them broadcast over 6,300 election ads on television in one week, more than in any other congressional election campaign running at the same time; Overall, this election was considered particularly competitive in 2018.

In the main election in November 2018, after the counting of all votes, Golden was just behind Poliquin, about two thousand votes behind; both remained below 50 percent. In such a case, the state of Maine had already given the option of indicating a second preference on the ballot paper, i.e. an election with an instant runoff voting , which Maine voters voted for for the first time in the United States in a referendum in June 2018 had decided to hold a congressional election. Poliquin filed a lawsuit against this electoral system, demanding that the evaluation of secondary preferences be stopped as not being in conformity with the constitution. Federal judge Lance Walker decided on November 15, 2018 to continue the counting according to the new system. As a result, Golden was the winner on November 15, 2018, according to the Associated Press ; after combined first and second preference, it achieved 50.5 to 49.5 percent (139,231 to 136,326 votes). For the second preferences, Golden received 10,232 votes, Poliquin 4,695, over 8,000 indicated no second preference. Poliquin did not recognize the result; his lawsuit was finally dismissed on December 13, 2018. The election was seen as a test of whether the Democrats could win back rural voters from the workforce after Trump won the 2016 presidential election .

Golden took up his mandate on January 3, 2019. Like the - shrinking - majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives, but unlike most of his New England colleagues such as Chellie Pingree, he has long spoken out against the initiation of impeachment proceedings against President Trump; such a decision would, in his opinion, deepen the division of the country, especially since from a pragmatic point of view the Republican-dominated Senate of the United States would speak out against the impeachment . As one of the last MPs in his party, he approved the impeachment investigation against President Trump in late October 2019 in the wake of the Ukraine affair .

In the 2020 election , Golden will run again and by the end of June 2019 had achieved almost $ 600,000 election campaign income (147th place in the House of Representatives). While Poliquin will not run again in 2020 for personal reasons, former State Senator Eric Brakey is applying to the Republicans for Golden's seat.

Positions and Style

Golden is particularly committed to maintaining health insurance for the chronically ill, which was a main topic of his 2018 congressional campaign, as his opponent Poliquin voted for Obamacare to be abolished . He was attacked by the National Rifle Association , among others, for campaigning for stricter gun laws, including mandatory background checks when buying guns. As a member of the state, he was committed to immigrants, infrastructure measures and especially veterans. He helped pass laws that increased the capacity of Maine's Veterans Administration and allowed National Guard members to attend community colleges and the University of Maine free of charge.

Golden's style has been described as reserved and purposeful; He does not correspond to the norm of a professional politician, shows his tattoos, for example, which come from the time of the military service, and finds it difficult to market himself. Golden represents moderate positions, orientates itself unideologically and pragmatically to the needs of the voters and seeks fields for non-partisan cooperation.

Web links

Commons : Jared Golden  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e Steve Collins: Jared Golden: From combat to candidate for Congress. In: Lewiston Sun Journal , September 9, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b c Jared Golden's Biography. In: Vote Smart
  3. ↑ a b Golden, Jared. In: Our Campaigns
  4. ^ A b Steve Collins: Brakey files to challenge Golden in 2nd Congressional District race. In: The Sun Journal , July 29, 2019.
  5. ^ Steve Collins: Ads all the time: Maine's tight 2nd District race is generating more than any other in the nation. In: Portland Press Herald , October 31, 2018.
  6. ↑ Steve Mistler: Federal Judge Denies Poliquin's Challenge To Maine's Ranked-Choice Voting Law. In: Maine Public Radio , December 13, 2018.
  7. ↑ Kevin Miller: Golden wins Maine's 2nd District race, flips another seat in US House to Democrats. In: Portland Press Herald , November 15, 2018; Steven T. Dennis: Golden Flips Maine House Seat for Democrats on Ranked-Choice Ballot. In: Bloomberg.com , November 15, 2018.
  8. ↑ Steve Collins: Bucking trend, Golden opposes House impeachment inquiry. In: The Sun Journal , July 29, 2019.
  9. ↑ Caitlin Andrews, Michael Shepherd: Maine's Jared Golden will vote to move Trump impeachment inquiry forward. In: Bangor Daily News , October 30, 2019.
  10. ↑ Dennis Hoey: Bruce Poliquin will not run against Jared Golden in 2020. In: Portland Press Herald , August 4, 2019.
  11. ^ Scott Thistle: Jared Golden, a leading Democrat in Maine House, announces run for the US Congress. In: Portland Press Herald , August 24, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Golden, Jared
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Golden, Jared F. (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Democratic Party politician for Maine
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1982
PLACE OF BIRTH Lewiston , Maine