Outgoing Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat, broke with his party to publicly endorse Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a move that drew a sharp rebuke from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Golden, who announced last November that he would not seek reelection, published an op-ed in Lohud on September 21 urging voters to send Lawler back to Congress. The endorsement centered on the two lawmakers' work together on the Northeast Lobstermen Protection Act, a bill Golden said would shield roughly 18,000 fishing jobs from a fresh wave of federal regulation. Golden called Lawler "a true partner" and "a friend to fishing families he will never represent", a pointed reference to the fact that Lawler's New York district does not contain a single lobster boat.
The cross-party endorsement lands in one of the most closely watched House races in the country. Lawler holds one of only three Republican-held seats that Kamala Harris carried in 2024, and he faces Democrat Cait Conley, a combat veteran and former National Security Council counterterrorism director, in New York's 17th Congressional District. The outcome could help determine which party controls the House after the 2026 midterms.
Golden's op-ed opened with a frank assessment of the institution he is leaving. In the piece, he wrote:
"When I announced last fall that I would not seek reelection, I wrote about the incivility and plain nastiness that are now common in our politics, and about a Congress that too often rewards ego and division over patience and determination. I stand by all of it. But there is another side to the story, and before I leave office I want to tell it."
The story Golden wanted to tell was about the lobster bill. For decades, federal regulators have stacked rules on Maine's lobstermen in the name of protecting the North Atlantic right whale. In 2021, the government issued a new round of restrictions that Golden said were "built on worst-case assumptions instead of real data." A federal appeals court later unanimously vacated those restrictions. Congress then stepped in with a six-year pause on new regulations and funding for improved science, but that pause expires at the end of 2028, and the research it paid for still has not been fully incorporated into the government's models.
The Northeast Lobstermen Protection Act, which Golden and Lawler co-led, would extend that pause until 2035. The bill passed the House Natural Resources Committee in July and recently cleared the full House floor with bipartisan support.
Golden did not stop at the lobster bill. He described their partnership as a pattern, not a one-off. When the Trump Administration ended collective bargaining for federal employees, Golden introduced legislation to restore those rights. Lawler signed on without hesitation, Golden wrote. Across multiple issues over the past two years, Golden said, Lawler was the colleague he found "across the aisle" when party lines stood in the way.
Golden's praise was direct: "He would rather pass a bill with the other party than score a point against it," he wrote.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did not let the endorsement go unanswered. The New York Democrat called Lawler "an unadulterated phony who has never shown bipartisan courage when it matters," the New York Post reported.
Jeffries's response underscored the stakes for Democrats. Lawler's seat is a top pickup target, and a retiring Democrat vouching for the Republican incumbent complicates the party's messaging in a district that already leans slightly left at the presidential level. For Democratic strategists trying to flip the House, Golden's endorsement is an unforced error from inside their own ranks.
Golden is no stranger to breaking with his party. Earlier this year, he and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez were among a small group of Democrats who handed Republicans procedural wins on the House floor, drawing calls for punishment from their own caucus.
Lawler responded to the endorsement on X, thanking Golden and calling him "a servant leader who has fought tirelessly for his district."
"Time and again when we needed bipartisan compromise, Jared was always there ready to deliver. I'm honored to have earned his support."
Lawler also emphasized the working relationship in a separate statement. "While we are from different parties and different states, Jared and I have worked during our time together in the House to find common ground on issues that matter both to us and our constituents," Fox News reported him saying.
Golden's departure from Congress carries its own political consequences. His Maine district, the state's 2nd, carries a Cook Partisan Voter Index rating of R+4. Without Golden on the ballot, the seat is widely expected to flip Republican, a factor that makes his endorsement of Lawler even more notable. Golden is not simply freelancing on his way out the door; he is actively spending his remaining political capital to help a Republican hold a swing seat.
The endorsement also fits a broader pattern of Democratic defections that have rattled the party's leadership in recent months. From procedural votes to high-profile endorsements, a handful of centrist Democrats have repeatedly broken ranks, raising questions about whether the party's progressive wing is driving out members who might otherwise hold competitive seats.
Golden's op-ed made clear he sees the problem. He described a Congress that "rewards ego and division over patience and determination," and his endorsement of Lawler was an implicit argument that the Republican had earned reelection by doing the opposite. The Washington Examiner noted that Golden has been increasingly breaking with his party in his final weeks in office, a trajectory that makes the Lawler endorsement less a surprise and more a culmination.
Golden put his case plainly in the op-ed: "I strongly back him, and I hope voters send him back to work. Wherever you live, find the members who pass laws with the other party, and keep them."
That message, keep the lawmakers who get things done, regardless of the letter after their name, is the kind of sentiment that polls well but rarely survives contact with party machinery. Jeffries's swift response made clear that Democratic leadership views Golden's endorsement not as a principled stand but as a betrayal in a race where every seat matters.
The broader instability within the Democratic caucus extends beyond the House. Senate leaders have faced their own challenges keeping members in the fold, with high-profile figures publicly flirting with independence from the party line.
Strip away the political maneuvering and the endorsement rests on a concrete policy dispute. Maine's lobster industry, roughly 18,000 jobs, by Golden's account, has spent years caught between federal regulators citing endangered-whale protections and fishermen who say the science behind the restrictions is flawed. The 2021 regulations were thrown out by a unanimous federal appeals court. Congress bought time with a six-year pause, but that clock runs out at the end of 2028.
The Northeast Lobstermen Protection Act would extend the pause seven more years, to 2035, giving researchers time to finish the work Congress already funded. Golden argued that Lawler's willingness to co-lead a bill protecting an industry hundreds of miles from his own district was proof of the kind of legislator he is.
That argument carries weight precisely because Lawler had no parochial reason to get involved. There are no lobster boats in New York's 17th District. Lawler took up the cause because a colleague from the other party asked him to, and because the policy made sense. That is a harder thing for Jeffries to dismiss than a simple party-line vote.
Several open questions remain. The bill has cleared the House, but its fate in the Senate is unknown. The specific court that vacated the 2021 restrictions and the exact mechanism the Trump Administration used to end federal collective bargaining are not detailed in the public record surrounding the endorsement. And whether Golden's backing actually moves voters in a New York suburban district remains to be seen.
But the endorsement itself is already doing its work, not because one retiring congressman's opinion will decide a House race, but because it forces a conversation Democrats would rather not have. When one of your own members looks across the aisle and says the Republican is the better choice, the problem is not the member who left. It is the party he left behind.