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Vance Takes Center Stage In White House Push To Protect GOP Majority

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Vice President JD Vance flew to Bangor, Maine, on May 14 for what was billed as an Anti-Fraud Task Force rally, but the trip quickly revealed its true purpose.

Vance shouted out former GOP Gov. Paul LePage, who is mounting a congressional bid, and extended an olive branch to Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a frequent thorn in the administration’s side who faces reelection in 2026. As rallygoers waved “Protecting Taxpayer Dollars” signs, Vance made his closing argument: keep the Trump administration in power so the fraud-fighting can continue.

Maine was just the latest example of a pattern that has defined his vice presidency.

In the last five months, Vance has traveled to eight states for 11 campaign-type events. This excludes a trip like Maine, where the vice president was there technically on official business. Since taking over as finance chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Vance has headlined 25 fundraisers, an RNC official told the Daily Caller.

Outside of the president, Vance owns 2026. He’s the GOP’s top surrogate, its best closer and most valuable weapon on the trail.

“He has a star power that, outside of the president, is unmatched,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters told the Caller. “People love him, they love what he has to say. He’s a very good campaigner, a very good speaker and motivator. He just has the ability to move people.”

The White House political team has mapped out competitive districts and is deploying Vance accordingly, an official told the Caller. His team has been coordinating with the White House for months, and Vance has made clear he’ll go wherever he’s needed.

Those stops are expected to multiply as Labor Day approaches, though his travel will pause briefly when Usha Vance gives birth to their fourth child in the coming weeks.

“There’s a realization that he’s a younger face who articulates domestic issues in a way that resonates and complements the president’s style,” one source close to the administration told the Caller.

Vance isn’t alone on the trail. Cabinet officials have fanned out across the same battleground states, often far more frequently than the VP himself.

In Georgia, where former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s seat is up for grabs, Vance has visited once; Cabinet officials have made 14 trips since January.

In North Carolina, where former RNC Chairman Michael Whatley is running for Senate, Vance has stopped once to the Cabinet’s 11. In Vance’s home state of Ohio, where Vivek Ramaswamy is running for governor, and a tight Senate race between former Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown and Republican Sen. Jon Husted is taking shape, Cabinet officials have shown up 19 times to his two. The pattern holds across Iowa (8-1), Wisconsin (11-1), and Michigan (15-1).

The numbers reflect a deliberate division of labor. The White House political team told Vance they needed him to make a push for Rep. Zach Nunn in Iowa, a source close to the political operation told the Caller, and the VP agreed. He goes where the ask is sharpest.

New York illustrates the scale: Cabinet officials have visited 27 times, Vance twice. In Texas, where Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton faces Democrat state Sen. James Talarico, Cabinet has been there 49 times, the president once, Vance twice.

And joining the Cabinet officials and the VP on the campaign trail will be Trump, who will be making some stops as Labor Day approaches, a White House official told the Caller.

On the fundraising side, Vance has been just as formidable. He has helped raise more than $60 million for the RNC since taking over as finance chair, according to The New York Times. The RNC ended May with $125.5 million cash on hand, raising $14.8 million in the month alone.

Gruters credits Vance’s personal touch.

“People that we’ve had come to some of our events have told me that they’ve been some of the best political events they’ve ever had, the best opportunity they’ve ever had to spend quality time with the VP,” he told the Caller. “It’s really opened up the opportunity for us to break out and raise these record-setting amounts.”

None of this can happen, however, without whispers of 2028. Trump loves to poll those around him on the question of his successor: Vance or Rubio. Every trail stop the VP makes adds more to the conversation.

Sources close to Vance insist the midterm push is not a calculated audition, and the VP has gone out of his way to signal as much. Earlier this year, he turned down political trips to Iowa specifically because he didn’t want them perceived as 2028 groundwork.

For Vance’s part, he has repeatedly said he is not thinking about 2028, but the job ahead.

“I have no doubt that the president of the United States is going to be very supportive of anything that I ultimately decide to do,” Vance told CBS News. “But we really just haven’t talked about what that thing will be.”

He added that he is not “sitting around figuring out whether I’m going to run for president.

But the overlap is hard to ignore.

“It also serves the heir apparent well to hit hotly contested areas of the country ahead of his own run,” one source close to the administration told the Caller. “In many ways, it’s a win-win.”

AUTHOR

Reagan Reese

White House Correspondent

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Lefty Democrats Purged Their Only Congressman Without Trump Derangement Syndrome

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Republicans are licking their chops after progressives helped drive Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden to retire from Congress, with local operatives and party consultants telling the Daily Caller it gives them a clearer path to victory in Golden’s red-leaning district.

“Bottom line on Maine’s 2nd Congressional District: It’s a Republican-leaning district, now absent the one Democrat who could hold it,” a Republican consultant who has worked on congressional and statewide campaigns in the state told the Daily Caller.

Maine has been long regarded as a moderate state Golden is viewed as one of the few Democrats capable of effectively representing the rural 2nd District’s constituents.

“The district has been getting more and more difficult for the Democrats to win for a decade now,” a longtime Maine political operative told the Caller.

Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who began his political career working for Republican Sen. Susan Collins, flipped Maine’s 2nd in 2018, ousting Republican incumbent Rep. Bruce Poliquin. It was the first time an incumbent lost reelection in the district since 1916.

Trump won Maine’s 2nd all three times he ran for president, including by almost ten points in 2024.

In 2024, Golden’s campaign messaging straddled both sides of the political spectrum. His ads simultaneously called former President Joe Biden “unfit to serve” while highlighting Republican opposition to abortion. Ahead of Trump’s election last November, Golden said he’d be “OK” if Trump won, accusing his own party of “pearl-clutching” about the ramifications of a Trump presidency. He was one of a handful of Democrats to join Republicans in a vote to reopen the government earlier this week.

Golden’s bipartisan stances often angered the Democratic Party. In 2020, a source familiar told the Caller that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded Golden endorse Collins’s Democratic challenger, state Rep. Sara Gideon, or risk losing their support. Golden told party leadership to “pound sand,” the source said, and asserted they’d lose the seat if they didn’t back him.

The attacks were even more acute from the Democrats’ left flank.

Progressive activists bashed Golden repeatedly over his four terms, accusing him of not standing up for marginalized communities, being too soft on Trump, and abandoning Democrat values.

“The Democrat Party has moved so far to the left and it really just got to the point where he couldn’t do anything. Any vote he took was going to be the wrong one … but he couldn’t move any further to the left because that would absolutely cook him in a general,” a senior Republican strategist said.

The Maine operative echoed the view that Golden was taking a lot of heat from progressive groups but would not allow himself to be bullied by them.

“There was a lot of pressure from the Indivisible group here. They have an organized presence and they were sort of pushing and harassing — they would call it advocating — and he wouldn’t give in to them,” the operative told the Caller. “He kind of dug his heels in with the progressive left a little bit. He was sort of still their ally, but he just wouldn’t let them push him around.”

The mounting frustrating that Golden wouldn’t capitulate to the party’s left-wing base and special interest groups lead to a 2026 primary challenge from State Auditor Matt Dunlap, who planned to campaign aggressively on Golden’s record of siding with Republicans on certain issues, according to a NOTUS report.

The strategist said the overall situation reflected growing frustration within the Democratic Party with Golden.

“They saw Golden was the only one who could win that seat, and so they put up with his nonsense. It is very clear they were not happy with him. Jared Golden’s always just given them the middle finger, and that’s really what led to Dunlap feeling emboldened to jump in,” the strategist told the Caller.

In addition to Dunlap, former chief of staff to progressive Democratic California Rep. Katie Porter, Jordan Wood, is leaving the California Senate race to run in the Democratic primary for Golden’s seat, according to a Politico report.

“I don’t know when he last even visited the 2nd District,” the operative asserted.

Golden’s exit has given Republicans a better opportunity to flip the seat with former two-term Governor Paul LePage, multiple people familiar with Maine politics told the Caller.

The operative said, “LePage is kind of a folk hero to the people in rural Maine.”

The Republican consultant identified Golden as being a rare figure who can capture the district’s independent-minded voters and warned Democrats that putting up a progressive challenger to LePage wouldn’t end well.

“In an entirely nationalized political environment, people tend to forget that actual people end up deciding the fate of these elections. Golden was as unique as Maine’s 2nd District: a veteran, former Susan Collins staffer who refused to endorse Sara Gideon despite strong-arming from Schumer and Pelosi in ’20, and wore flannel not because it poll-tested well but because he’s actually from there and wears flannel,” the consultant explained.

Golden claimed in a lengthy column announcing his decision not to run for a fifth term that he was concerned about rising political violence and extremism, citing in part the two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump. The congressman also received a bomb threat of his own last Thanksgiving.

“I don’t fear losing. What has become apparent to me is that I now dread the prospect of winning,” Golden wrote, adding that he has “never loved politics.”

A Republican strategist who worked on the LePage campaign said Golden’s excuse for giving up his seat, though, is “ridiculous,” noting, “Since he left the military, every single job he’s had has been in politics.”

Golden’s sudden departure surprised many, though signs of internal pressure had been building within his own party. The congressman’s op-ed excoriates Democrats for giving into extremism, hinting perhaps at the role an intra-party divide played in his decision to leave.

“We’re allowing the most extreme, pugilistic elements of our party to call the shots,” Golden asserted about the Democrats.

The Maine operative also pointed to a recent slate of polls that indicated Golden’s path to reelection was not as clear as in previous cycles.

“He was getting poll after poll after poll saying he was not going to win … He was the most viable of their potential candidates as far as I could see,” the operative explained.

Golden’s campaign approach shifted noticeably during his 2024 re-election, suggesting he had all but given up amid inner party turmoil and falling poll numbers. The senior strategist observed that Golden was rarely seen at public events or making the kinds of appearances most candidates consider essential in the crucial final months of a campaign.

“He wasn’t someone that was always present in the district, always out and about, and I think he really, at some level, benefited from running a sort of basement campaign,” the strategist told the Caller. “It wasn’t that he was getting all of these Republican or Trump voters to also vote for him and split their ticket — he just wasn’t making Republicans angry enough to vote against him.”

The longtime Maine operative recalled an instance during the late summer of that election year when Golden was allegedly canoeing along the remote Allagash River in Maine’s North Woods — a notably desolate setting just months before the November election.

“We were asking where he was, and the response from his campaign team was, ‘He’s canoeing in the Allagash and he’ll be back next week.’ It was just this kind of surreal moment. It was almost like he no longer took anything seriously,” the operative said.

Golden has long touted his reputation as a moderate within his party, highlighting his ranking on the Bipartisan Index from the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, which placed him 7th out of 435 members in the 117th Congress, according to a May 2022 press release.

Golden has earned begrudging respect from a large amount of Republican operatives in the state, the consultant said, adding that Golden’s relationship with Collins has remained positive and productive over the years. The pair recently collaborated to urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) to increase investigations and crackdowns on illegal Chinese-owned marijuana operations in Maine.

Losing a key ally of Collins will likely be another blow to Democrats as they aim to hold the 2nd District.

“Susan Collins is at the top of the ticket,” the consultant said. “Collins, a political behemoth, has always run ahead of the national environment for Republicans. Maine’s 2nd District is likely in the ledger for Speaker Johnson”

AUTHOR

Ashley Brasfield

Reporter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.