LEWISTON, Maine– Two Republican lawmakers, one of whom was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, are seeking the opportunity to try that dethrone one of the most conservative Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives in a Maine district that was rocked by a mass shooting last year.
The two members of the Maine House of Representatives will face off in a Republican primary on Tuesday. They are Austin Theriault, of Fort Kent, who is backed by Trump, and Mike Soboleski, of Phillips, who is also a supporter of the former president.
The winner will facing three-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Jared Golden in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which has handed an electoral vote to Trump in the last two elections. The district was also the location of a mass shooting that left 18 people dead in Lewiston in October.
Theriault and Soboleski both pledged to be a stronger protector of the Second Amendment than Golden in the months after the shooting, motivating Maine Democrats to pass a series of new gun control laws. Golden, who has also long styled himself as a defender of gun rights, supported a ban on assault weapons after the Lewiston shooting but has said he would not have voted for changes like expanding background checks and creating sanctions for illegal weapons sales.
Economic development, inflation and immigration have also played a role in the primary campaign, but gun control is clearly a major factor in voters’ minds, said Mark Brewer, a political scientist at the University of Maine.
The elections also have an opportunity to shake up Congress’s power structure. Republicans hold a slim five-seat lead in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Maine election is one of the few that could change that balance, Brewer said.
“This will definitely be one of the top 10 House races in the country, if not the top five,” Brewer said. “It’s an incredibly evenly distributed district, and there are fewer and fewer of them.”
The 2nd Congressional District is much more rural and geographically larger than Maine’s other district, which leans more heavily Democratic and is based around Portland. The 2nd District is home to many of Maine’s traditional industries, such as papermaking and lobster fishing.
Theriault is a former NASCAR driver who had a major fundraising advantage over Soboleski during the race. However, Soboleski received support from some other Republican state lawmakers.
Both portrayed themselves as more in tune with the neighborhood’s working people. Theriault said of the gun issue “and many others: Jared Golden does not represent the people of the district.” Soboleski said Golden is “focused on climbing the political ladder.”
Golden, a Marine veteran of two wars, has characterized his approach to gun control and other issues as pragmatic and right for Maine.
“In Maine, as elsewhere, the government, the courts and the people must balance individual rights and the common good,” he said.