Jared Golden follows Austin Theriault’s fundraising effort with $50K pledge to shooting victims

AUGUSTA, Maine — U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District said Monday that he will donate $50,000 to victims of the October shooting in Lewiston, a day after opponent Austin Theriault announced his effort to raise that sum around an October stock car race.

Golden’s spokesperson called a reporter just after 8 p.m. on Monday to offer an interview with the third-term Democratic congressman, who lives in Lewiston and said he will donate the money from his campaign fund. He urged Theriault and others in Maine’s congressional delegation and their 2024 opponents to match the donations the same way as soon as possible.

“I think it’s a great idea, something we can all agree about, right?” he said.

Golden’s response to Theriault’s move was a moment of detente in one of the biggest congressional races in the country. It is a nod to the shattering effect of the shooting that killed 18 people and injured another 13 at a bar and bowling alley and forced a 48-hour lockdown until police found shooter Robert Card II dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Lisbon.

On Sunday, Theriault, a former NASCAR driver who is also a Republican state representative from Fort Kent, announced at the Oxford Plains Speedway that he would compete in the PASS 400 race there in October. He stated a goal of raising $50,000 around the event and handing the money over on the Oct. 25 anniversary of the shooting.

Theriault’s campaign promoted his effort, but he is soliciting pledges from donors through a portal on his separate personal website . His campaign manager, Shawn Roderick, welcomed Golden’s move in a statement on Monday evening.

“Austin welcomes anyone — Republican or Democrat — who wants to put people over politics,” Roderick said.

Golden is seen as one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in 2024, representing a district twice won by former President Donald Trump. But the 43-year-old Marine veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has proven durable there, outpolling Trump four years ago and voting against President Joe Biden more than any other House Democrat last year.

Republicans see an opportunity in Golden’s response to the shooting. In a news conference a day after the carnage, he reversed himself to support a ban on so-called assault weapons like the one used by Card. Gun-rights groups that sat on the sidelines of his 2022 election are now likely to play a role in this race.

Theriault, 30, is a political newcomer running with the full weight of his party. On a visit to Auburn this month, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said ousting Golden was a top-five priority for Republicans. Theriault’s campaign has tried to focus on the congressman’s high-profile votes with Democrats, such as for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 .