How has Stewart done relative to the baseline in his prior races? Should Golden be thankful for this or is it bad news?
He beat incumbent Senator Michael Carpenter by 14% in 2020. This was a large overperformance from Carpenter's 4% and 2% victories in 2016 and 2018. To be fair, this State Senate district is very red and was one district Republicans targeted as an easy pickup so I'm not sure what we could draw from this on how Stewart would do in more competitive areas. With that said, he is young and to his credit, has worked with Governor Janet Mills at some points.
From what I have read, his strategy vs. Golden seems to be less about Golden himself and more about Democrats needing Golden's seat to keep their majority and Pelosi as Speaker of the House.
