BANGOR, Maine — As his state was rocked by a shake-up in the Senate race, Democrat Matt Dunlap says he’s focused on affordability concerns in his quest to keep his party’s hold on a red-leaning House district.
Dunlap, the state auditor who is running to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, says his message is resonating with voters in the battleground 2nd District.
But Republicans see the seat — a district that Donald Trump carried three times — as a prime pickup opportunity in a challenging midterm election year. Their nominee is former two-term Gov. Paul LePage, who carried the seat even when he lost the 2022 gubernatorial election. And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hasn’t yet added Dunlap to its program for promising candidates, since he defeated the committee’s endorsed candidate in last month’s primary.
“I’ve always said that no opportunity to be a grown-up ever seems to pass me by,” Dunlap said in an interview Saturday on the sidelines of a party convention to pick a new Senate nominee. “I’d like to be spiteful and vengeful and get a reckoning. But, really, you can’t have a rearview mirror because we have 101 days in front of us, and we need the help from anyone.”
