2022 Watch: Former GOP representative in key House battleground hauls in big bucks

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As he fights to regain his old seat in Congress, Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine is showcasing impressive fundraising figures just two months into his 2022 campaign.

Poliquin on Thursday reported raising $880,000 in the first 58 days of his campaign, from his announcement of candidacy in early August through the end of September, which marked the end of the July-September third quarter of fundraising.

The former congressman’s running to defeat two-term Democratic Rep. Jared Golden in Maine’s Second Congressional District, one of the top House battlegrounds in the nation.

MEET JARED GOLDEN, THE HOUSE DEMOCRAT WHO BUCKED SPEAKER PELOSI

Golden narrowly defeated Poliquin in the 2018 midterms, with the race becoming the first congressional election in the nation’s history to used rank-choice voting to decide the winner. Poliquin sat out the 2020 election, and Golden defeated Republican Dale Crafts by six points in a district that former President Trump carried in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential races. 

"As I said when getting into this race, our nation is in trouble. Politicians like Jared Golden are empowering people like Nancy Pelosi and the extreme left in taking America down the wrong path," Poliquin charged in a statement.

And he vowed that if elected, on "Day One I will bring Maine common sense back to Washington."

State Rep. Mike Perkins, an Air Force and law enforcement veteran, is also running for the GOP nomination in Maine's 2nd Congressional District.

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The National Republican Congressional Committee views Golden as vulnerable in the 2022 midterms and the reelection arm of the House GOP as well as pro-Republican outside groups are targeting the Democratic lawmaker, a Marine veteran who deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq.

The GOP needs a net gain of just five seats in next year’s elections to win back the House majority, which they lost in the 2018 midterms.