Battle for the House: GOP gets boost in bid to flip swing district after Democrat bows out
The Republican push to flip a Democrat-held House seat in a swing district that President Donald Trump carried in his three White House runs just got a big boost.Hours after...
By Fox News · Fox News
The Republican push to flip a Democrat-held House seat in a swing district that President Donald Trump carried in his three White House runs just got a big boost. Hours after four-term House Democratic Rep. Jared Golden announced that he wouldn't seek re-election in the 2026 midterms in Maine's 2nd Congressional District , two top nonpartisan political handicappers shifted the now open seat towards the Republicans. The race in the district, which is the second-most rural in the U.S. and the largest east of the Mississippi River, is one of the most closely watched House contests in the country next year as the Republicans aim to hold their fragile majority in the chamber. And Golden's announcement rocked the race. "I've been fielding calls for the last 24 hours about how this is a bellwether for whether or not the Democrats can try to retake Congress, as this was, by many accounts, the most competitive House seat in the nation," veteran Republican consultant Brent Littlefield told Fox News Digital on Thursday. VULNERABLE HOUSE DEMOCRAT MAKES MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT Littlefield is the top campaign advisor to former two-term GOP Gov. Paul LePage , who earlier this year decided to come out of political retirement and launch a congressional bid in the district. Golden, a U.S. Marine veteran who deployed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and who often bucks his own party in Congress, has held the seat since first winning it in 2018. He won re-election last year by a razor-thin margin. "After 11 years as a legislator, I have grown tired of the increasing incivility and plain nastiness that are now common from some elements of our American community — behavior that, too often, our political leaders exhibit themselves," Golden said in an op-ed for the Bangor Daily News, where he revealed his unexpected decision. LONGTIME TRUMP ALLY AIMS FOR POLITICAL COMEBACK The moderate Democrat took shots at both parties in his 2026 announcement. "We have seen mainstream Republicans stand…