Repub­li­can Austin The­ri­ault con­cedes clos­est elec­tion in Maine his­to­ry to Jared Gold­en

Posted in Economy  •  Published by
Republican Austin Theriault concedes closest election in Maine history to Jared Golden

State Rep. Austin The­ri­ault con­ced­ed the elec­tion in Maine’s 2nd Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict to Rep. Jared Gold­en (D‑ME).

The race was one of the clos­est in the coun­try and the clos­est in Maine’s his­to­ry. The Asso­ci­at­ed Press called the race for Gold­en at 8.50 p.m. Nov. 15, 10 days after the elec­tion. Gold­en received 49.9% to Theriault’s 49.8% of the vote with 99% of votes count­ed. The­ri­ault quick­ly called for a recount, which con­clud­ed Wednes­day, one day shy of one month since the elec­tion.

In a state­ment, The­ri­ault con­grat­u­lat­ed Gold­en and thanked his own sup­port­ers.

“It has been the hon­or of my life to run to rep­re­sent Main­ers in Wash­ing­ton,” The­ri­ault said. “This was an extreme­ly close and hard-fought race and I’m hum­bled by the tremen­dous recep­tion we received from all cor­ners of the dis­trict.

“I ran this cam­paign cen­tered around putting Peo­ple Over Pol­i­tics, and it’s time to do that now,” he con­tin­ued. “I want to con­grat­u­late Jared Gold­en and wish him the best of luck rep­re­sent­ing our beau­ti­ful home. I look for­ward to work­ing with him, the rest of the del­e­ga­tion, and the Maine peo­ple to con­tin­ue to fight for our state.”

Gold­en is one of the few Democ­rats who won a dis­trict that Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump car­ried in 2020, cast­ing him­self as a cen­trist. He pulled this feat off again in 2024, though much more nar­row­ly than last time. He nev­er said whether he vot­ed for Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris, some­thing The­ri­ault repeat­ed­ly harped on.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The Maine con­gress­man was one of the first con­gres­sion­al Democ­rats to come out against Pres­i­dent Joe Biden dur­ing his post­de­bate cri­sis in July. He went fur­ther than most Democ­rats in prophet­i­cal­ly say­ing Trump would prob­a­bly win the elec­tion and that he was OK with that.

Maine is one of two states to allo­cate elec­toral votes based on con­gres­sion­al dis­tricts. Maine’s 2nd Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict vot­ed for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024.