There are plenty of congressional districts where support for gun control of any kind is going to hurt a candidate, and Maine's Second Congressional District is one of them. The district is currently represented by Democrat Jared Golden, who at one time actually earned the endorsement of the National Rifle Association. Golden declined to run for reelection after coming out in favor of a ban on so-called assault weapons, and Democrats ended up selecting State Auditor Matt Dunlap as their candidate.
Dunlap is facing former governor Paul LePage in the general election, and LePage has definitely leaned in to his record on the Second Amendment, which includes signing a permitless carry bill into law. Dunlap, meanwhile, is also courting the votes of gun owners, though he's doing it in a far more Fudd-like fashion by posting videos boasting of his prowess with shooting clay targets.
I’d beat this Floridian in a skeet shooting contest any day of the week. pic.twitter.com/2XJPm52VT8 https://t.co/Yx1EQ1Oehk
— Matt Dunlap (@dunlap4congress) August 6, 2026
I don't care if Dunlap is an Olympic-caliber shooter. What matters to me and other gun owners is whether he'll stand up and support the Second Amendment. Dunlap, who briefly served as the head of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine about 15 years ago, probably isn't as bad on the issue as anti-gunners like Maxwell Frost, but he seems to think the Second Amendment exists to protect the rights of hunters.
Dunlap was the former head of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine and says he's all for gun rights as a hunter himself.
"Bird hunting, duck hunting, deer hunting, bear hunting, moose hunting, turkey hunting," Dunlap said.
The National Rifle Association has endorsed LePage in the congressional race, and now the state's largest gun control organization has done Dunlap a solid by declining to endorse his campaign.
The Maine Gun Safety Coalition said both Dunlap and LePage “have made it clear they intend to cater to the gun lobby instead of the majority of (2nd District) voters who supported Question 2” — alluding to last year’s “red flag” law referendum that voters, including majorities in each of Maine’s two congressional districts, passed.
“Voters in the 2nd Congressional District passed a gun safety law last November because they know gun rights and gun responsibility aren’t mutually exclusive,” Nacole Palmer, the coalition’s executive director, said. “It’s misguided and misaligned with voters’ values to act like they are and engage in this race to the bottom on guns.”
A full-throated endorsement by the gun control group would be the kiss of death for Dunlap's campaign, and I'm sure they're breathing a sigh of relief that Palmer is arguing there's essentially no difference between the two candidates when it comes to the Second Amendment.
This is a smokescreen, in my opinion. Dunlap isn't running as a gun control advocate, but he's not offering anything for gun owners to get excited about either. His campaign website doesn't mention the Second Amendment among his list of priorities, and Dunlap hasn't said what, if anything, he would do to protect the right to keep and bear arms if he's elected. Where does he stand on things like national right to carry reciprocity, for instance, or banning "large capacity" magazines and centerfire semi-automatic rifles?
Who knows. Dunlap would rather rattle off the various species he's hunted and brag about what a great skeet shooter he is than enlighten Maine voters about his position on gun control measures and bills that would strengthen our Second Amendment rights. I'm sure that Nacole Palmer and other anti-gun activists would prefer an out-and-proud gun control backer as the Democrat candidate in ME-02, but that candidate would have no chance of winning the general election. The best they can hope for is a Democrat that pledges support for the Second Amendment without offering any specifics, and that's exactly what they have with Matt Dunlap.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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