LEWISTON – Since declaring his intention to run against two-term U.S. Rep. Jared Golden this spring, Jordan Borrowman has said on social media that “traitorous” President Joe Biden “slithered his way into the White house” and will “completely destroy America.”

But the 35-year-old’s scorn includes many other politicians as well.

Borrowman, an independent from Lewiston, said the Republicans are spineless and the Democrats tyrannical. He expressed disgust with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and denounced U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, as a career politician who has been in Washington for such a long time that she’s “forgotten what it’s about” to represent her state.

In a wide-ranging interview recently, Golden, a Lewiston Democrat, was about the only politician who didn’t draw the wrath of his long-shot challenger.

Borrowman said he was taking aim at Golden’s seat because “he’s in the district that I’m in.”

There is only one other active challenger to Golden, who is seeking reelection in 2022: state Rep. Michael Perkins, a three-term Republican from Oakland, where he also serves as the Town Council chairman.

Borrowman said he’s in the contest to stay and plans next year to file the required petition to snag a spot on the ranked-choice ballot. Once he makes it, he said, “anything is possible.”

“I know it’s an uphill battle,” he said, but he plans to talk to voters across the sprawling district in hopes of stirring a grass-roots revolt that could propel both him and little-known gubernatorial contender Shane Drake, an ally, to victory.

Borrowman, a Los Angeles native who moved to Lewiston two years ago, said the major political parties spend their time bickering with each other instead of working for a better America. Each of them, he said, “have kind of lost their way.”

He said he never dreamed of becoming a politician, but feels compelled to run for office because he wants to protect the Constitution and “make sure people are taken care of.”

Borrowman, who works for an interstate cleaning and janitorial services company, said he realized last year that it wasn’t enough to complain about the problems people face. He said it hit him one day that he had to run for office.

Initially, he said, he planned to run for a county commission seat, but he got involved too late to complete the required signature gathering so he didn’t do it.

As he contemplated his options, Borrowman said, he considered running for a state office but eventually decided the U.S. House race in the conservative-leaning 2nd District was his best alternative, especially since so many congressional races are one-sided affairs whose results are all but certain. Golden’s district is among the most closely divided.

Borrowman said he is conservative, but open to new ideas.

He said he’s sure there was fraud in the last presidential election, but “I can’t say it was stolen” as former President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed without offering any proof.

“I don’t think it’s good for him to come out and say that,” Borrowman said, “but I’m not going to condemn him for saying that.”

Borrowman said the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and “did bad things” are criminals, but insisted many of the Trump fans who protested outside the building did not do anything wrong and shouldn’t be lumped in with those who did.

He said he doesn’t like Biden and doesn’t think he can help the country.

But, he said, he hopes as an American that the president succeeds “and makes me feel stupid” for doubting him.

Borrowman, a high school graduate, is divorced with two children, a 15-year-old in California and a 1-year-old who is with him in Maine.

He said he moved to Lewiston to be with his girlfriend, who got a job in the area.

“This is home now,” he said. “I love it very much here.”

Golden won the sprawling district in 2018 by defeating U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, an Oakland Republican, in one of the closest races in the country. Golden won reelection last year by a wider margin against Lisbon Republican Dale Crafts.

Bangor Republicans Peggy Sheriff and Michael Sutton filed papers to challenge Golden in 2022 but both later said they’re not going to run after all.

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