LEWISTON (NEWSCENTER Maine) -- He is one of the youngest and perhaps the poorest member of the 116th Congress. He has already made history by winning a Congressional election using Ranked Choice Voting. He is Jared Golden, the Representative from Maine's Second District.
He grew up at Springbrook Golf Course in Leeds, which his family owns. He worked on the course and played a lot of sports as a kid.
"I had two older siblings that were straight A students," he told NEWSCENTER Maine. He was not, but enrolled at the University of Maine at Farmington where he began studying to become a history teacher. That last a couple of weeks.
Nine-eleven happened right after he arrived and his memories of his freshman year are mostly about what was happening in the Middle East.
He joined the Marines and left school his sophomore year. "I actually came home on Thanksgiving break and told the folks," he smiled.
He would do tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of an Infantry Assault Team.
Twice, he came back to the states through Bangor and was greeted by throngs, which included his family, at BIA.
"It was early in the morning, but the manager of the facility actually pulled back the gate to a restaurant, opened it up and allowed everyone to get a first beer." he said with a smile.
Before discharge, he was diagnosed slight PTSD which he says he has taken matter-of-factly.
"This is who I am and I had my internal feelings and things going on and getting that diagnosis didn't mean much to me," he said.
He would work at the RV Super Center and George's Pizza in Auburn. A chance meeting with a Bates Dean began the process of a transfer from UMF to Bates where he was the oldest and only student who was a military veteran.
He did not shave or cut his hair for a year. During that year, he visited a poli-sci class to talk about his service in the Middle East. There, he was watched closely by a young undergraduate named Izzy Moiles.
They would not get to known each other until after college, but in 2015, they would marry.
Izzy is truly a political wife, having served on the City Council. They met when he was campaigning for the Legislature.
A busy pair, she started law school on the same day that he announced for Congress.
She says on election night, "We tried to just tune out a little bit....I had a really great Netflix show. We ordered pizza for like and hour and then we went over to connect with staff."
The Congressman-elect actually trailed by a percentage point on election night. However, incumbent Bruce Poliquin failed to achieve a majority of the votes. The ballots of fourth place finisher Will Hoar were examined to include those voters' second choice. Then the ballots of Tiffany Bond were examined to see who their second choice was.
Jared came out the winner with almost 51% of the votes.
While he is going to Washington, he wants to work hard on constituent services in his district. "There's been a lot of people who feel the last four years the Congressman hasn't had that focus on being fully accessible, present in the district," he said.
Jared Golden is the last person to beat an incumbent in Maine's Second District since 1916.