Even Maine Dem Jared Golden Joins Susan Collins in Blasting Sec of State's Decision to Boot Trump

I wrote earlier about how the Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is now trying to defend her decision, hitting MSNBC and CNN, even bragging about voter participation as she attempts to disenfranchise millions.

George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley decimated Bellows' take on the matter, saying he thought that this wasn't just a bad take, but that it would be subject to judicial review and SCOTUS would come to the rescue by settling the question.

I'm not a big fan of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), but one might expect her to stand against the decision by her state's Secretary of State. She did, in fact, come through.

Maine voters should decide who wins the election – not a Secretary of State chosen by the Legislature.

The Secretary of State’s decision would deny thousands of Mainers the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice, and it should be overturned.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) December 29, 2023

Maine voters should decide who wins the election – not a Secretary of State chosen by the Legislature. The Secretary of State’s decision would deny thousands of Mainers the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice, and it should be overturned.

As expected, she got attacked by people on the left on X/Twitter for her statement. They didn't seem to care much about due process or a Democrat just blithely removing peoples' rights.

But it was the words of Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) that stood out more, as a Democrat. He weighed in and also said even though he thought Trump had committed insurrection (he hadn't) and voted for impeachment, that this move by the Secretary of State was wrong.

My statement on the Maine Secretary of State's ruling: pic.twitter.com/ByO3XJe1JS
— Congressman Jared Golden (@RepGolden) December 29, 2023

"However, we are a nation of laws, therefore until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the ballot," Golden said in the statement.

He didn't address the question about the 14th Amendment not applying to Trump as president, but at least he got the main due process point correct, and good for him for standing out there, knowing that he was exposing the big hole in this effort, knowing that he's going to get attacked by Democrats for undercutting this tactic.

Now, part of that may be his desire to stay afloat in his Trump-voting district. He may care more about that than any Democratic tactic at this point. But Golden has shown before he's willing to buck the narrative. He wasn't afraid to bash Joe Biden over what he believed was a bad decision hurting lobstermen in his state.

Part of his reasoning now may be that he's in a district that went for Trump in 2020.

When you realize that your party is insane and that your district resoundingly voted for Trump twice (it's an Obama-Trump congressional district), so you quickly try to extricate yourself from your Democratic Secretary of State: https://t.co/fHXOCuD8nO
— Sarcastic Cupcake (@SarcasticCupcak) December 29, 2023

Keith Olbermann's reaction was typical of the left's reaction to Golden.

We need to primary @RepGolden and chip in to buy him a copy of the Constitution.

"Engaged." Not convicted. https://t.co/Eok3kDDc0d
— Keith Olbermann⌚️ (@KeithOlbermann) December 29, 2023

When you're agreeing with Olbermann, you may have a problem.