State Auditor Matt Dunlap won the Democratic primary in Maine‘s 2nd District early Friday morning. His victory could put Republicans in the driver’s seat for November.
Dunlap will take on Republican Paul LePage in the race to replace Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), a Blue Dog Democrat who is retiring after four terms in the House.
Running any Democrat other than Golden, the rare incumbent to hold a Trump-won district in 2024, was going to be a challenge for his party. LePage is a former two-term governor who remains popular in the 2nd District. But the victory by Dunlap, a progressive, represents the worst-case scenario for national Democrats who tried to keep him off the general election ballot.
Dunlap launched an insurgent campaign to challenge Golden in 2025, prompting a backlash from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as well as Democratic lawmakers and operatives who suggested Dunlap could not win the rural, conservative-leaning seat.
At the time, the DCCC warned Dunlap that only Golden could hold the seat, according to NOTUS, and would endanger national investments in the race. The committee attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to dissuade the auditor from running.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), a centrist Democrat, also took issue with Dunlap’s launch, writing in a social media post that Golden is the “only Democrat in America who has won [three times] in a Trump … district. Any Democrat who tries to trip him up as he sprints into the general election is helping MAGA.”
Golden in October also suggested Dunlap would be unable to defeat LePage, the Bangor Daily News reported.
The DCCC later recruited and endorsed state Sen. Joe Baldacci, who officials saw as a more viable candidate in difficult terrain.
The DCCC’s involvement in this and other races sparked backlash among some members of Congress, and this is the second time this month a DCCC-backed candidate fell in the primary.
DCCC spokesperson Riya Vashi told the Washington Examiner in a statement that “Paul LePage embodies everything Mainers are fed up with. In a midterm election where voters across the spectrum are done with Republicans breaking their promises to lower costs, ME-02 remains squarely in play.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Dunlap campaign for comment.
House Majority PAC, an outside group for national Democrats, suggested Friday that it still plans to maintain its ad reservations in the 2nd District, even with Dunlap as the nominee.
“Paul LePage has made a career out of defunding health care and cutting Medicaid — and we look forward to ensuring he loses in November,” HMP spokesman CJ Warnke told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
Adam Carlson, a veteran Democratic pollster and founder of Zenith Research, told the Washington Examiner that Dunlap’s “politics are a better match for the much bluer 1st District than the light red 2nd District” and that Golden was a “repeat electoral overperformer.” Carlson remarked on social media that Dunlap’s nomination “probably takes ME-02 off the board for Democrats.”
Dunlap charted out an unabashedly progressive lane in the primary, advocating “Medicare for all,” emphasizing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in his campaign ads, and appearing at rallies alongside embattled Senate nominee Graham Platner.
The National Republican Congressional Committee celebrated the development, saying in a statement that “National Democrats failed miserably in this district not once, but twice.”
“They lost their incumbent, and now they’ve lost their hand-picked replacement and are stuck with a freak who embraces a Nazi-loving abuser,” said NRCC spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole, taking a jab at Platner’s since-covered-up Nazi tattoo.
May polling from the NRCC showed LePage leading Dunlap by 10 points, a sign of the hill Dunlap will have to climb in the district.
CAN BERNIE SANDERS CONQUER MAINE?
Democrats only need to flip three seats to reclaim the House, but if they cede the Maine seat, they’ll need to win an additional seat elsewhere.
“Just to be clear what this would mean — Dems lose a Dem seat to take the House Majority — one more to make up somewhere else,” Neera Tanden, a Democratic operative and former adviser to former President Joe Biden, remarked on social media.