Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden said Wednesday that the government shutdown has been “driven” by the “demands” of “far-left groups.”
Golden was the sole Democrat to vote in favor of House Republicans’ stopgap funding plan on Sept. 19. The congressman’s comments come after Senate Democrats blocked a GOP spending bill to fund the government late Tuesday evening, kicking off a government shutdown on Wednesday.
“This government shutdown is the result of hardball politics driven by the demands far-left groups are making for Democratic Party leaders to put on a show of their opposition to President [Donald] Trump,” Golden wrote in a statement posted to X. “The shutdown is hurting Americans and our economy, and the irony is it has only handed more power to the president.”
“This fight is ostensibly about health care, so let me be clear: I opposed the GOP’s Medicaid cuts and I want to extend the ACA tax credits. But some of my colleagues in the majority party have reasonable concerns about tax credits going to high-income households. There’s room and time to negotiate. But normal policy disagreements are no reason to subject our constituents to the continued harm of this shutdown,” the congressman’s post continued.
Golden represents a seat which Trump won by nine points in the 2024 presidential election.
The Democratic lawmaker wrote in part of a statement following the vote that “there’s a lot of important work to be done in Congress, none of which will be any easier if Mainers are suffering the harms of a government shutdown.”
“Even Democrats admit it: the shutdown is THEIR fault. Rep. Jared Golden says it’s driven by far-left demands & political games,” Republican Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain said Wednesday in a post to X. “Families suffer while Hakeem, Schumer and Dems play politics.”
Several analysts and Republican lawmakers previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer chose to bring on a government shutdown as part of an effort to appease the wishes of far-left Democrats.
Indivisible, a left-wing group that has received millions in grants from the George Soros-founded Open Society Foundations, made headlines for running a campaign to pressure Democratic senators to not vote for a GOP-backed funding proposal to avert a shutdown. As of Wednesday afternoon, Indivisible has a landing page on its website titled, “STOP THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN.”
Just three Democratic Caucus members voted alongside Republicans to prevent a government shutdown on Tuesday evening: Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Angus King of Maine.
On Tuesday, Fetterman said in part of a statement that his vote “was for our country over my party,” while Cortez Masto said in a press release that she “cannot support a costly shutdown that would hurt Nevada families and hand even more power to this reckless administration.” Meanwhile, King — an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats — claimed in a Tuesday statement that “by shutting the government,” Democrats are “actually giving [President] Donald Trump more power.”
A New York Times/Siena University survey released Tuesday found that 65% of respondents said Democrats should not plunge the nation into a government shutdown even if “their demands are not met.”
Additionally, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday in an X post that “Democrats are holding the American government HOSTAGE with wild partisan demands.”
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