U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (ME-CD2) appeared unconcerned — and a little grumpy — when a GOP tracker caught him on the streets of Washington, D.C., to ask whether he’s concerned about a potential Democratic primary challenge from State Auditor and longtime Maine Democratic official Matt Dunlap.

“Hey Congressman, are you worried about a primary challenge from Matt Dunlap?” the unnamed videographer asked.

“No,” grumped Golden, hardly breaking stride.

Dunlap, the current State Auditor and former longtime Secretary of State, has been raising eyebrows in Maine political circles by talking openly about his desire to challenge an incumbent from his own party for Maine’s Second Congressional District.

Golden first won office as a challenger in 2018. Since that time, he’s played the role of a careful moderate and successfully won re-election three times. In 2020 and 2024, Golden’s re-election margin necessarily included voters who backed both President Trump and a Democratic congressional candidate.

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But throughout all three re-election bids, Golden’s margin of victory has steadily shrunk. In 2020 he won by roughly 22,000 votes, by 12,000 votes in 2022, and by just 2,500 votes in 2024.

In a podcast interview with The Robinson Report, Dunlap was noncommittal about his future plans for office but made it clear that it was something he was considering and that he saw plenty of cause for Democrats to be upset with Golden’s time in office.

On Wednesday, a source familiar with Dunlap’s thinking about the potential primary bid suggested the Democrat would make a decision about whether to enter the race within the next few weeks.

“It’s safe to say that as Matt Dunlap meets with folks and hears what they have to say and what they want to see coming out of Congress, there has been a great deal of encouraging feedback and he is very close to making a decision, probably before the end of the next two weeks,” the source said.

Regardless of who emerges from a Democratic primary, the candidate will have to square off against former Republican Gov. Paul LePage.

LePage cleared the field of GOP aspirants when he entered the race earlier this year, surprising many up-and-coming Republicans who’d been eyeing the race. It’s understood in GOP circles that the LePage name is dominant among Republican voters, especially in the more conservative CD-2, which has voted for President Donald Trump three times.

LePage has yet to lose a majority of votes from CD-2, but this is his first run where that calculation will provide the final verdict on whether he wins the race.

Although his 2022 loss to Democratic Gov. Janet Mills left a bad taste for many Republican insiders and regular voters, that election is likely to be ancient history when it comes to sending President Trump reinforcements in Washington, D.C., especially if the Commander-in-Chief enters the fray on LePage’s behalf.

“Paul LePage is focused on talking to Mainers across the Second district and delivering for the people of Maine,” said Elizabeth Gillen, a spokesperson for the LePage campaign.

“No one has the record he does when it comes to paying Maine’s hospitals, improving Maine’s economy, and fighting for working families which is why he will win in this election, regardless of who his opponent is,” she said.

Golden is keenly aware of the tenuous position a Democrat has in northern and central Maine, and that awareness has been reflected in his public communications and strategic voting record.

For example, Golden irked hardcore leftists prior to the 2024 presidential election when he published an op-ed with a Bangor newspaper predicting that Trump would win the election and that his victory wouldn’t be an apocalyptic event.

Golden has also frequently broken with U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-CD1), who reliably votes with the extreme far left of Congressional Democrats.

In a recent resolution vote honoring slain Christian activist Charlie Kirk, Golden was among the bipartisan majority voting in support, while Pingree snubbed Kirk with a mere “present” vote.

Dunlap is not without his own appeals to the more conservative voters in rural Maine.

In March, the State Auditor’s Office, which Dunlap runs, released a single annual report on Maine’s prior year spending that went off like a nuclear bomb in Maine politics.

[RELATED: Maine Audit Reveals Systemic $2.1 Billion Financial Mismanagement and Corruption Risk…]

The audit, a rare case of truth-telling from someone in the orbit of Maine Gov. Janet Mills, exposed how $2.1 billion in state spending was exposed to serious risk of mismanagement and corruption.

The audit found that the Mills administration was routinely ignoring the state and federal rules around the awarding of no-bid contracts. As a result, money handed out to vendors through non-transparent processes could lead to clawbacks by the federal government. The broken process also raised the prospect of litigation risk from parties who should have had the opportunity to bid on government contracts.

The Mills administration official theoretical in charge of the deficient contract process — long-time state employee and Mills ally Kirsten Figueroa — has since resigned her position at the Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS). She’s rumored to be relocating to Portugal.

Left-wing press outlets mostly ignored Dunlap’s audit, including Maine’s major newspapers, which have themselves received millions of dollars no-bid contracts through the very process Dunlap’s audit criticized.

But the story went viral via The Maine Wire and has been repeatedly referenced this year by GOP gubernatorial candidates. That signals Dunlap’s efforts to ferret out government corruption and mismanagement could have bipartisan appeal, even if Mills’ friends at the newspapers decline to share the information with their subscribers.

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Polling in ME-CD2 so far shows LePage with a considerable advantage over Golden.

Making matters worse for the incumbent Democratic Rep, his favorability rating is down considerably from prior re-election years.

In Oct. 2020, Golden enjoyed a 62 percent vs 30 percent favorable / unfavorable rating, while that measure of popularity slid last year to 53 percent versus 33 percent.

So far, no noteworthy Maine Democrats have publicly abandoned the S.S. Golden, but that could change.

If it looks like Golden is headed to a big loss at the hands of a top Trump ally in the form of Paul LePage, Democrats in northern Maine and Washington, D.C., may conclude it’s worth taking a risk by dumping the incumbent in favor of Dunlap.

Check out our interview with former Republican Gov. Paul LePage…

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