U.S. Rep. Jared Golden meets with voters during an October 2024 campaign event in Eastport, Maine. (Photo courtesy of Jared Golden for Congress)
Jared Golden has consistently demonstrated electoral prowess, defying the odds to maintain his Democratic seat despite voters in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District consistently backing Republican Donald Trump for president.
However, he thinks there’s a better way to elect representatives to Congress.
On Tuesday, the congressman, along with U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, introduced legislation to establish a bipartisan select committee to consider alternatives to the current winner-take-all electoral system.
Democrats who won in Trump country have a plan for reducing political polarization in Congress
Suggested reforms the committee would consider include ranked-choice voting, which has been adopted by Maine among other states and localities, independent redistricting commissions to push back against gerrymandering, and expanding the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The legislation marks the next step in an effort the pair, who are both co-chairs of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, announced in a resolution in the weeks following the November election.
In an op-ed outlining the proposal, they explain that the Electoral Reform Select Committee Act is part of a slate of bills they believe would reduce political polarization, strengthen democracy and prioritize “old-fashioned place-based representation.”
Other reforms include expanding remote testimony in order to “prioritize the voice of regular Americans in the policymaking process,” and removing rules that penalize voters who don’t identify with a political party, for instance by opening primaries to independent voters.
“Americans are tired of a political system that divides us,” Golden said in a press statement Tuesday. “Reforms to improve representation are not just a good idea – they are already working in places like Maine. This bill will bring us together to find the solutions we need to make politics better for everyone.”
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