Democrat Golden backs GOP’s Lawler in tough New York race

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) this week endorsed Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), crossing the aisle to support the Republican in one of the closest — and most closely watched — contests of the midterm cycle.

The move is sure to frustrate Democrats, who are fighting to flip control of the lower chamber and see Lawler’s seat as among the best pickup opportunities in November’s elections.

Writing Monday in a local New York paper, Golden said Lawler, who’s vying for a third term in New York’s Hudson Valley, is an independent thinker — one willing to shed partisan loyalties to get things done — and that voters should return him to Congress next year.

“He would rather pass a bill with the other party than score a point against it,” Golden wrote in The Journal News of Rockland County.

Lawler was quick to welcome the bipartisan support on Monday, characterizing Golden as a “servant leader.”

“Time and again when we needed bipartisan compromise, Jared was always there ready to deliver,” Lawler wrote on the social platform X. “I’m honored to have earned his support.”

On one hand, the endorsement comes as little surprise. Golden and Lawler are among just a small group of House lawmakers who represent districts won by the opposing party’s presidential candidate in 2024. And Golden, who is retiring at the end of this term, has long built a reputation as a lone-wolf policymaker, willing to buck his own party to advance legislation benefiting his purple district and bolster his bipartisan image.

Indeed, twice this month Golden joined Republicans on procedural votes to help GOP leaders advance their legislative agenda. In the first case, he did so to ensure that a proposal helping regional lobstermen made it to the floor. That bill was also championed by Lawler, and Golden leaned heavily on that dynamic in explaining his endorsement.

“There is not a single lobster boat in his district. He got no votes in this and no headlines back home,” Golden said of Lawler’s support. “He signed on because a historic American industry, thousands of fishing families, and the principle that federal rules should be built on facts were all on the line. And he understands that in every community, not just in Maine, mom-and-pop shops have been around for generations, and their livelihoods make up the very foundation of our communities.”

On the other hand, Golden is also a Marine Corps veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan — a resume that’s similar to that of Lawler’s Democratic challenger, Cait Conley, a former Army officer who was deployed six times overseas, including stints in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In endorsing Lawler, Golden did not mention Conley. Instead, he bashed those lawmakers and candidates who place domestic threats above those from foreign adversaries. And he stayed focused on Lawler’s track record inside the Capitol.

Aside from the lobstering bill, Golden also singled out two other cases in which Lawler defied GOP leaders to endorse Democratic legislation: one bill overturning President Trump’s repeal of union rights for government employees, and another effort to restore the ObamaCare subsidies that expired at the end of 2025.

“Lobster traps, union rights and health insurance do not have much in common, except that on all three, Lawler chose to solve the problem rather than campaign on it,” Golden wrote in his endorsement.

Democratic leaders have a decidedly different opinion of Lawler and his legislative record. They’re pointing out that he’s sided with Trump the vast majority of the time, including in supporting the Iran war and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which slashed Medicaid and a host of other low-income programs.

Lawler was also among the rare battleground Republicans to appear at the Trump-heavy GOP convention in Dallas earlier in the month.

“Lawler has turned public service into his own personal payday and repeatedly put Donald Trump’s extreme agenda over New Yorkers, even when it means gutting his own constituents’ health care and driving up their costs,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (Wash.), the head of House Democrats’ campaign arm, charged earlier in the year.