Golden Miracle

The votes are there for Ukraine with a center-out strategy led by a miracle-worker

Joe Manchin’s retirement means there is a new holder of the title “Electoral Miracle” in Congress. Maine’s Jared Golden is the only Democratic Triple Trump Trumper, flipping and thrice winning a district won by Trump (and doing so by increasing margins from 2018 to 2022). 

Golden is now leading a legislative miracle: shepherding a bipartisan bill through the House of Mike Johnson to address the border and support foreign allies, including Ukraine.

Last week, in a “Dear Colleague” letter to fellow members, Golden and his bipartisan partner wrote:

Ukraine’s position is imperiled. Its freedom fighters are running out of ammunition and withdrawing from the East, paving the way for Russia’s further advance. This is a direct result of Congress’ gridlock.

Grow Out Of The Middle

What is the strategy to break out of gridlock? 

Here’s how Golden explained it on CBS’ Face The Nation on Sunday:

“The most important thing to remember here is that the votes are there to support Ukraine … the Senate started with a bill, they had to boil it down to whatever could get to 60 votes. The House needs to go through a similar process … having a more open debate on the House floor. Amendments should be in order. We need to find a way to get a deal that gets us to 218. I think a deal like that has to grow out of the middle, and is unlikely to begin with a one-party solution.”

Golden goes on to note that amendments could allow for humanitarian aid. You can watch the full clip here:

Flannel to Finesse

You may have noticed that Golden does not look like the typical politician on a Sunday morning show.

The fashion choices of Congress-men have been getting attention lately. John Fetterman has grabbed headlines recently for two things: dressing like a normal dude and explicitly rejecting leftist labels. Fetterman should be more famous for a third: finding rising popularity by leaning into authenticity. In recent months, Fetterman’s favorability among all voters – including Democrats – has gone up as he has rejected purity tests, and even explicitly rejected the label “progressive.”

Golden’s electoral and sartorial success predates Fetterman heading to DC. In 2018, Golden won a district that Trump had won. In 2020, he grew the margin while the same voters gave Trump a 52.3% to 44.8% win over Biden. In 2022, Golden surpassed 53% in a post-redistricting seat that had given Biden just 45%.

It isn’t just his on-court performance. Golden has laid out the X’s and O’s of winning the game and depolarizing our country. He offers an explicit frame for his ability to finesse past partisan division. Here’s Golden on his own Substack, advocating for effective bipartisanship through strengthening a faction within the Democratic Party that could more authentically represent his district: 

To be clear: I’m  not making an argument for fleeing the Democratic or Republican parties, but it might be time for the rise of new factions within both parties and possibly across today’s ossified partisan boundaries

New Labels

Finesse isn’t just in blowing up the oversimplified left-right spectrum. Golden also uses intentionally nuanced language in his path to electoral success – and burgeoning legislative leadership. He calls himself a “progressive conservative,” a potential way to elide the trap of bland moderation (as AOC once said, “Moderate is not a stance. It's just an attitude towards life of, like, 'meh."). 

From Golden’s Substack:

The divisive narrative that distills every disagreement down to a fight between “dangerous socialists and woke liberals” on one side and “racist, authoritarian-minded fascists” on the other is ungrounded from reality and unsustainable for social cohesion. It would make us choose between party affiliation and colleagues at work; between party identity and lifelong friends; between party loyalty and members of our own family. 

For many of us this is an impossible choice that pits us not only against people in our community, but against ourselves. The reality is that people contain multitudes, and most of us have both progressive and conservative leanings, ideas, and instincts.

New Labels is one way to think of it. His bill is co-sponsored by other members of No Labels’ Problem Solvers Caucus, but the GOP leader of that group has been very clear this is *not* a bill from that group.

Throughout the Fall, we ran a Flip Five campaign that called for a speaker elected by members of both parties, to wield the gavel in bipartisan fashion. Fitzpatrick, Bacon, and other supposedly moderate Republicans refused to cross over – and Democrats didn’t pull hard enough to bring them over. So we are left with a Speaker-in-name-only who places greater scientific faith in dinosaur fantasies than he does in IVF.

Can the leadership of a handful of Democrats and Biden-district Republicans really get something done on Ukraine and the border?

Mostly dead is slightly alive

As Miracle Max once said, “It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead … mostly dead is slightly alive.”

Congress is only mostly dead. Despite a short list of able leaders in the GOP, there is a long list of bipartisan accomplishments during the Biden era (as Joe Manchin’s prayer card will show you).

Such cross-partisan arrangements have become somewhat common in state legislatures from Ohio to Alaska to Texas, as we explored in Laboratories of Centrism. Our engagement with leaders in those states shows a path forward that takes trust-building and negotiation seriously. Golden’s approach shows both – he is offering to save the Speaker if he supports Ukraine and keeps the government open.

It can be difficult to know what action to take. The line is often “call your member of Congress.” In this case, you should amplify this particular member of Congress – on Facebook, Twitter, the Blue Dog Caucus he co-chairs - and by forwarding his Substack. 

Like in The Princess Bride, the cause is noble. Have fun storming the castle!