When President Joe Biden was deposed from his perch atop the Democratic ticket nearly one month ago, fellow Democrats and the corporate media were swift to take up arms for his endorsed successor, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Despite the rapid convergence behind Harris, though, some Democrats are not as keen on Kamala as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Harris is scheduled to receive her party’s official nomination Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Yet, in six crucial races that may determine the balance of power in the House of Representatives, Democratic candidates are keeping their distance.
Three House Democrats—Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Josh Harder of California, and Mary Peltola of Alaska—are notable Harris holdouts. So, too, are three Democrats hoping to flip Republican House seat—Lanon Baccam in Iowa, Adam Frisch in Colorado, and Janelle Stelson in Pennsylvania.
As the DNC opens, Golden seemingly has distanced himself from Harris to protect his seat in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which the Cook Political Report currently lists as a toss-up. Golden, who unseated former Rep. Bruce Poliquin in the 2018 midterms, faces Austin Theriault, a Republican member of the Maine House of Representatives.
Golden is expected to keep the seat, but Theriault poses a threat because of structural forces within the district. The Cook Political Report claims that Republicans have an advantage of 5 percentage points in its partisan voting index, or PVI.
With Biden’s persistently poor job approval ratings, Golden has attempted to sequester his race from the rest of the election cycle.
“Let me be as clear as I can be: I will not be endorsing in the presidential race,” Golden proclaimed in a recent statement. “The reason is simple: I am running to represent all the people of this district, regardless of who they vote for at the top of the ticket.”
The Theriault campaign said Golden is dodging the issues.
“Jared Golden isn’t being honest or straight with the voters of Maine,” Theriault campaign manager Shawn Roderick retorted in his own public statement. “We have a right to know who Jared is voting for—regardless of who he’s endorsing or not endorsing. Jared Golden has worked with VP Harris for four years. So is he voting for her? It’s a simple yes or no question.”
While Golden’s race is a toss-up, Harder’s race is solidly in the Cook Political Report’s “likely Democrat” category. While Republicans have a 5-point PVI advantage in Maine’s 2nd, Democrats have a 5-point PVI edge in California’s 9th Congressional District.
Harder is vying for his third term representing California’s Stockton area. He is squaring off against Stockton Mayor and Marine Corps veteran Kevin Lincoln II, a Republican.
Harder may be attempting to distance himself from Biden and Harris because if Lincoln is able to consolidate the Republican votes cast in a so-called jungle primary in March, the Stockton mayor will be on his way to Washington.
Peltola, Alaska’s at-large representative and co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, is seeking her second term in the House. In 2022, Peltola defeated former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by 10 points despite a PVI disadvantage of 8 points.
Peltola will compete Tuesday in a nonpartisan election to determine who advances to the general election, which will feature ranked-choice voting. Will Peltola change her tune about Harris, depending on Tuesday’s results?
Democratic challengers in competitive elections are following incumbent Peltola’s lead by distancing themselves from Harris.
Baccam is challenging Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican, in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District. Nunn, 45, took the seat from incumbent Democrat Cindy Axne in the 2022 midterm elections by a razor-thin margin—less than a point separated Nunn and Axne when the dust settled.
Recent polling suggests the 2024 race between Baccam and Nunn could be just as close as the 2022 race. On the soapbox at the Iowa State Fair, Baccam recently highlighted his service in the Iowa Army National Guard in an attempt to court independent voters. Baccam also admits that border security is the issue voters bring up most on the trail, and that something needs to be done to secure the southern border.
Frisch, on the other hand, is vying for an open seat in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, a seat left open by Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican who decided to run for the Centennial State’s 4th district seat instead.
In 2022, Frisch came 554 votes short of unseating Boebert in the closest election of the 2022 midterms. This year, Frisch will take on Republican Jeff Hurd for the open seat. Hurd is currently the favorite to win, according to the Cook Political Report. The district advantages Republicans by about 7 percentage points and currently is classified as “lean Republican.”
As a Democrat, Frisch is distancing himself from the policies of the Biden-Harris regime in Colorado, too.
“Regardless of who wins the White House, I will remain laser-focused on the issues that matter to CD3 like cutting inflation and reducing costs for working families, defending western and southern Colorado’s water, and securing the southern border,” Frisch said in a statement to Politico.
Come Nov. 5, the presidential candidate who wins the Keystone State likely will win the key to the White House.
In Pennsylvnia’s 10th Congressional District, former TV news anchor Stelson is running to unseat Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican who is a former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Republicans continuously have held Pennsylvania’s 10th since 2010, with Perry’s stint starting in 2019.
Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District is also a “lean Republican” seat, according to the Cook Political Report. Though Stelson has publicly kept her distance from Harris, their campaigns appear to be coordinating on the ground.
One Stelson volunteer, Rich Forsman, told local ABC affiliate WHTM-TV: “I’ve been volunteering with the Janelle Stelson campaign since January. And since then, I’ve gotten kind of dragged into the Harris campaign.”
“Voting is your most sacred right as an American,” Matt Beynon, a campaign spokesman for Perry, the Republican incumbent, told The Daily Signal. “Janelle Stelson doesn’t respect voters enough to level with them on the most basic questions in this race. Voters don’t know whether she supports the Democrat ticket. Voters don’t know where she stands on critical tax relief that’s saving hardworking south central Pennsylvanians more than $2,000 each year. Voters don’t know why Stelson doesn’t even live in the district.”
“South Central Pennsylvania voters deserve more than what they’re getting—and not getting—from Janelle Stelson,” Beynon said.
But even as the unexpected Harris-Walz campaign continues to enjoy a honeymoon phase in the weeks before the Nov. 5 election, Democrats in competitive House races look to divorce themselves from Harris’ record as vice president, senator, and California attorney general.
