Democrat Rep. Jared Golden has managed to win several close races over the past couple of election cycles despite Maine's conservative bent, in large part because Golden hasn't marched in lockstep with his party on the issue of gun control. But after the shootings in Lewiston, Maine last October, Golden reversed his position on an "assault weapon" ban and fell in line with his fellow Democrats in support of prohibiting commonly owned semi-automatic rifles. 

Maine's congressional delegation is split on a gun ban, with Sen. Angus King co-authoring and sponsoring the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearm Exclusion (GOSAFE) Act and Sen. Susan Collins opposed (though she says she's open to a ban on "large capacity" magazines). Democrat Gov. Janet Mills didn't call for a state-level gun ban in response to the Lewiston shootings, and efforts by Democrats in the state legislature to include an "assault weapons" ban in their post-Lewiston package of bills failed, with Mills signing legislation that expanded background checks, overhauled the state's "yellow flag" law, and imposed a three-day waiting period on gun sales instead. 

Golden, however, is sticking to his call for a gun ban, though he's not bringing it up much on the campaign trail these days. Locked in a tight race against Republican state legislator Austin Theriault, the Democrat appears to have realized that his flip-flop on a ban is hurting his chances of re-election. 

Skip Works was the type of voter who helped make Jared Golden a rarity in US Congress.

A registered Democrat, Works says he actually leans Republican because of the Second Amendment. He voted for former president Donald Trump in 2020, and plans to again this year. He’s been a Golden voter, too, backing the Lewiston Democrat in New England’s only congressional district to vote for Trump four years ago, and one of only a handful Trump-won districts represented by a Democrat in the US House.

“I liked the idea that he’s an old-fashioned Democrat,” Works, 68, said as he lounged on a bench at the Fryeburg Fair this month. He spoke in the past tense because, Works said, he was a Golden voter — until the third-term congressman reversed his stance on an assault weapons ban following a deadly mass shooting in Lewiston.

“I’m a sportsman,” the Fairfield resident said. “I love my guns.”

Golden's embrace of a gun ban could even cost him the votes of some of those directly impacted by the rampage in Lewiston last fall. 

“Jared Golden flip-flopped,” said Ben Dyer, who was injured in last year’s mass shooting at Lewiston’s Schemengees Bar & Grille. Dyer said he is a gun owner and grew up in Aroostook County. He said he’s leaning toward backing Theriault, in part because he doesn’t agree that an assault weapons ban is the answer to the type of shooting he survived a year ago.

“At one point I voted for him,” Dyer said of Golden. “But to see someone flip-flop is not OK.”

Democrats have been making a lot of noise this election cycle about making inroads in rural America, but when the dust settles from Election Day they're likely to be once again left wondering why their politics are so toxic in small-town America and many rural districts. If Golden loses, the answer will be staring them in the face: you can't win the hearts and minds of rural voters when you're trying to take their guns away. 

And yes, an "assault weapons" ban that allows existing owners to keep ahold of them is still a gun grab. No one really believes that gun-banners are okay with 20+ million semi-automatic long guns being possessed by lawful owners. Once they get a ban on the manufacture and sale of so-called assault weapons, the next step is to require existing owners to register their guns, which then leads to a ban on their possession. That's the script California followed when banning "large capacity" magazines, and it's the same that would be followed by Democrats in D.C. if they gain control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. 

Almost everyone in the Lewiston area was impacted by the murderous rampage last fall that left 18 people dead and 13 others wounded, but support for an "assault weapons" ban is hardly universal. Golden may have thought he was making a politically popular move by embracing a gun ban, or perhaps he genuinely had a change of heart, but either way, it's a decision that could very well cost him his seat in Congress.