On Monday, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, endorsed a New York Republican facing a tough reelection bid in November.<\/p>\n
The move from Golden, a 2nd District Democrat who cited increasing political civility and threats against his family in not seeking a fifth term this year, can be read in two ways. <\/p>\n
On one hand, it represents a continuation of his tendency to frustrate the more progressive wing of his party \u2014 especially in a midterms year when Democrats are looking to overturn the GOP\u2019s narrow House majority.<\/p>\n
But on the other hand, Golden\u2019s endorsement of U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler makes sense given that the two co-authored<\/a> a bill delaying the start of new lobster fishing rules meant to protect North Atlantic right whales. Lawler is a 40-year-old Republican from New York\u2019s Hudson Valley who is seeking a third term in a district that former Vice President Kamala Harris carried in 2024.<\/p>\n Golden, 44, cited the lobstering legislation and other examples of Lawler\u2019s bipartisan work in an op-ed published Monday in The Journal News<\/a>, which covers part of the Hudson Valley. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is not a single lobster boat in his district. He got no votes in this and no headlines back home,\u201d Golden wrote of Lawler, describing the legislation that President Donald Trump has said he supports. \u201cHe signed on because a historic American industry, thousands of fishing families, and the principle that federal rules should be built on facts were all on the line. And he understands that in every community, not just in Maine, mom-and-pop shops have been around for generations, and their livelihoods make up the very foundation of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n On a national level, House Democrats are reportedly<\/a> sharing private reservations about spending significant resources to oust Lawler in his race against the Democratic nominee, Cait Conley, who is a combat veteran like Golden. <\/p>\n The Cook Political Report calls<\/a> the House race in New York\u2019s 17th District a toss up.<\/p>\n Trump has endorsed<\/a> Lawler as well. Still, Golden mentioned examples of Lawler disagreeing with the president: Lawler signed onto his proposal to restore collective bargaining<\/a> for federal workers after Trump signed an executive order last year to strip those rights. And at the end of 2025, Lawler joined Democrats in trying to extend Affordable Care Act credits that the Republican-controlled Congress let expire<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI held the most challenging district of any Democrat in the country by earning the trust of Democrats, independents and Republicans alike,\u201d Golden wrote. \u201cLawler holds one of just three Republican seats in the country that Kamala Harris carried in 2024. Representing districts like ours forces you to work for people who disagree with you, and it teaches you that those people are not your enemies. They are your neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n Although he is publicly backing Lawler, Golden sent some of his leftover campaign cash<\/a> to support various Democrats running in primaries earlier this year. It is not yet clear where he will send the remainder of his nearly $400,000<\/a> of campaign funds. <\/p>\n In the 2nd District race to succeed him, Golden has not endorsed the Democratic nominee, State Auditor Matt Dunlap, against former Gov. Paul LePage. Dunlap made a primary bid against Golden last fall before Golden announced he would not seek reelection to the swing district.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, endorsed a New York Republican facing a tough reelection bid in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-352554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}