Golden explains defection on GOP rule: ‘I’m going with the fishermen’

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) on Tuesday explained his choice to split from his party to support a Republican rule governing a series of GOP messaging bills, saying he was “going with the fishermen.”

He and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) broke from their Democratic colleagues to advance four bills , with one of the bills being a resolution to condemn socialism .

The rule also included a bill Golden proposed to provide lobstermen with economic protections as a result of the protections for the North Atlantic right whale, which passed late Tuesday evening.

“I have great empathy for right whales,” Golden told the Substack “ Out of State ” after the vote. “I want to see them survive.”

“But given the reality of what’s going on here, that most of their deaths have nothing to do with Maine lobstermen, if it’s a choice between Maine fishing communities and the right whales, I, as a representative for Maine’s 2nd District, I’m going with the fishermen and the families and the communities that they live in,” he added.

The lawmaker also noted that if he sided with Democrats, he would have felt as though he let the fishermen and lobstermen down and like he turned his “back on them when it mattered.”

Golden said the regulations to protect right whales left lobstermen “terrified” and “unworkable to the point where there would be hard discussions in communities about which families get to keep fishing and which to give it up.” He suggested that the protection could lead fisheries to fail, comparing it to a “mill closure,” and decimate local economies.

“No property tax base, schools closed, everyone moves away –– it’s just devastating,” the Maine Democrat added. “I literally had fishermen telling me that they were contemplating suicide.”

He explained it was a “nonsensical conversation” to defend siding with Democratic leadership by opposing the GOP bills and his own legislation. Voting against the bill he introduced “to help my core constituency” would have been received as “just a bitter betrayal,” he added.

The two Democratic defections effectively salvaged House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) September agenda, as the bills’ messaging on socialism, environmental protection and Israel could challenge Democrats who are vulnerable to challenges in the November midterm elections.

House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) said after the vote that Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez’s votes “came as a surprise.” Her Bay State colleague, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), dismissed any notion of party members punishing the two for their votes.

“No, no, no,” he said. “Who are we, the Republicans?”

Gluesenkamp Perez suggested she supported the GOP rule to ensure the lobster bill passed, saying that environmental protections are not assured without “the input of people who make their livelihoods and heritage on the water.”