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The National Rifle Association endorsed state Rep. Austin Theriault on Monday, sharply criticizing U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s embrace of a ban on so-called assault weapons after last year’s mass shooting in Lewiston.
The news: The conservative gun-rights group released its grades of the candidates in Maine’s swing 2nd Congressional District. Theriault, a Republican, got an A compared with an F for Golden, who got a B in 2022. That was after Golden took high-profile votes in opposition to Democratic leaders on guns, including in 2022 against a ban on semi-automatic firearms.
Things changed after a shooter used a rifle similar to an AR-15 to kill 18 people in Lewiston last October. At a news conference a day later, Golden said he had been wrong to oppose limits on so-called assault weapons. He later embraced the idea of permitting guns like the one used in Lewiston, a third rail for the gun-rights grassroots.
What they’re saying: The NRA is releasing digital ads hammering Golden and praising Theriault, a former NASCAR driver from Fort Kent who has voted reliably with Republicans against Democratic gun control bills in his one legislative term.
“It does not matter if you carry a firearm to protect your family, to hunt, or because you are a shooting sports enthusiast, Jared Golden’s radical anti-gun agenda will strip you of your Second Amendment rights,” Randy Kozuch, the head of the NRA’s political arm, said in a statement.
Golden’s campaign said the congressman has “a long track record of defending Mainers’ 2nd Amendment rights.” Former Maine State Police Col. Craig Poulin, who is co-chairing Golden’s sportsmen coalition, did not answer a question during a news conference about whether he supported the assault weapons shift, but he said it “took a lot of guts.”
“I thought he made a well-reasoned decision, and that’s, frankly, where I stand and what I applaud,” Poulin said.
The stakes: Golden’s shift put a salient partisan issue back on the table. The endorsement also came days after a 14-year-old allegedly used an AR-style gun he got as a gift from his father to kill four people and wound nine others at a Georgia high school.
But it’s not clear that guns will decide the Maine race. When Golden ousted Republican Bruce Poliquin in 2018, the Democrat carried a D grade from the NRA and was fighting with the influential Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine.
What’s really happening: National Republicans have instructed allies to not get into the weeds on Golden’s gun positions, which are fairly nuanced. For example, he irked Gov. Janet Mills by opposing her gun reform package that included background checks on advertised sales.
This race revolves around the small share of Republicans whom Golden has carried as part of a narrow but robust coalition that he used to outpoll former President Donald Trump in the district in 2020. Theriault needs to dislodge them by overcoming the congressman’s centrist voting record and his background as a Marine veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated that Jared Golden supported restrictions on gun magazines.