Former President Donald Trump endorsed state Rep. Austin Theriault in the Republican race to oust U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District on Wednesday.
Theriault, a 30-year-old former NASCAR driver from Fort Kent, is running with support from House Republicans’ campaign arm against fellow freshman Rep. Mike Soboleski of Phillips in the primary to take on Golden, a third-term Democrat from Lewiston who represents a rural swing district that Trump won in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Trump’s backing is the biggest prize for candidates in the party’s nominating races given his firm hold on the party entering a rematch with President Joe Biden in November. It is a blow to Soboleski’s underdog campaign and shows coordination between the former president and House Republicans looking to maintain their razor-thin majorities in the lower chamber.
The former president posted the endorsement at the same time as he handed out three others in House races on his social media platform on Wednesday afternoon.
“In Congress, Austin Theriault will work hard to Secure the Border, Protect our always under siege Second Amendment, Stop Crime, Cut Taxes, and Support our Brave Law Enforcement, Military, and Veterans,” Trump wrote.
The former president criticized Golden as “completely beholden to the Radical Left” in his post, although the congressman is a centrist member who was the only House Democrat to vote against his party’s president less than half the time in 2023, according to ABC News.
Golden has proven to be a durable politician since winning the 2nd District seat over incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin in a narrow ranked-choice election in 2018. He narrowly outpolled Trump when the two of them split the district two years later, then he defeated Poliquin by 6 percentage points in a 2022 rematch.
Yet his district is perennially competitive. Republicans see an opening in 2024 after Golden reversed himself to support an assault-weapons ban at a news conference the day after the Oct. 25 shooting in Lewiston that killed 18 people. He has continued to oppose other types of gun control measures, including a package floated by Gov. Janet Mills.
Both Theriault and Soboleski are looking to make quick rises in state politics. Theriault locked down the support of leading House Republicans before he announced his run in October. He rode that to a large financial lead on Soboleski.
The underdog has built his campaign around support from certain state lawmakers and local officials. Soboleski has long been an avowed Trump supporter, even including a quote lauding the former president’s policies on a website supporting his 2022 campaign for state office.
Theriault was less vociferous on Trump at first. In a December interview with Fox News, he said he would support whoever the Republican presidential nominee was. Since then, he has explicitly endorsed Trump and called himself a “pro-Trump…
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