AUGUSTA — For some Democrats, Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin’s vote this spring in favor of a health care bill that even President Donald Trump called “mean” threw open a door for a challenger to unseat the two-term incumbent.

Poliquin “can’t turn back time and undo the damaging vote he took to kick 23 million Americans off their health insurance and jack up premiums for millions more,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Evan Lukaske.

Poliquin, he said, “owns the Republican health care disaster and it will haunt him in 2018.”

But it’s one thing to spot a potential vulnerability. It’s quite another to find a candidate who can seize Poliquin’s 2nd District seat representing the only congressional district in New England that favored Trump in last year’s presidential race.

State Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage said that “Bruce will campaign as if he is vulnerable, even when he is not. The man works non-stop for the people of his district.”

Jonathan Fulford, a construction company owner in Monroe who is one of three Democrats seeking the chance to take on Poliquin, said the bill that Poliquin favored would have hurt many thousands of ordinary Mainers to “benefit a small number of extremely wealthy people.”

During a recent campaign stop in Auburn, he said voters are ready to get behind a challenger who can build grassroots excitement and offer a positive vision for a better America.

But Fulford isn’t exactly the stereotypical solid challenger that party professionals are looking for in their quest to find somebody who can knock out New England’s only GOP congressman.

The other two Democrats in the race are rural mail carrier Phil Cleaves of Dexter and Tim Rich, a Bar Harbor restaurant owner.

But the DCCC is pressing to find someone with more experience and perhaps more political juice, possibly Rep. Jared Golden, a Lewiston Democrat and U.S. Marine veteran who serves as the state House whip, or Senate Minority Leader Troy Jackson of Allagash.

Golden told the Bangor Daily News that he’s thinking about it. He plans to decide by summer’s end.

Democratic interest in Poliquin’s district is nothing new. In each of the past two elections, when the Republican twice defeated Emily Cain of Orono, money poured into the race on both sides as the two parties fought tooth-and-nail for the seat.

“Democrats have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to buy this seat over the last two cycles,” Savage said, adding that Cain “was the best they could find, twice.”

This time around, it probably won’t be one of the costliest congressional races in the country again, but it’s unlikely to be a quiet one either.

“It’s hard to see how Bruce, who is in his district working and meeting Mainers all the time, could be as vulnerable as the last two cycles, but we’ll never take anything for granted,” Savage said.

Ben Ray Lujan, chairman of the DCCC, laid out an agenda last month that insisted Democrats can seize control of the House in 2018 by snatching districts such as Poliquin’s from Republican hands.

“We have a unique opportunity to flip control of the House,” he said. “This is about much more than one race: the national environment, unprecedented grassroots energy and impressive Democratic candidates stepping up to run deep into the battlefield leave no doubt that Democrats can take back the House next fall.”

Doing so, though, “necessitates fielding strong candidates with diverse profiles that fit unique Republican-leaning districts,” Lujan said. “It demands that we continue embracing a big tent mentality, listening to the voices of everyday Americans and articulating a positive vision for our future.”

But even he didn’t cite Poliquin’s district as one of the most vulnerable. Political insiders generally consider it likely to remain in GOP hands, in part because Trump posted surprisingly strong numbers in the region last fall.

Fulford, 56, gained some recognition in Maine political circles for giving Senate President Michael Thibodeau R-Winterport, tough challenges the past two elections. But the Democrat didn’t win either time, which limits his appeal to party strategists searching for somebody who can bench Poliquin.

Cleaves and Rich also suffer from a lack of proven clout at the polling place.

Fulford said the health care issue will resonate among the towns and small cities of the mostly rural, sometimes poor district that Poliquin serves.

As someone who “couldn’t afford insurance for many, many years,” Fulford said he knows what an improvement President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act was for lots of Mainers.

Still, he said, it “was not the bold change we need. I’m for health care for all.”

Fulford said Maine can’t afford to lose nursing homes, rural hospitals and medical practitioners who may find their positions in jeopardy if the GOP manages to roll back health care gains.

Cleaves, too, sees health care as a crucial issue.

“The only long-term solution to America’s health care crisis is a single-payer national health care program,” he said.

Rich said that “Americans deserve universal coverage for every man, woman, and child in the nation. We get there by electing strong progressives to the House and Senate who are willing to fight for a single-payer health care system.”

One thing that could throw the entire contest in the air is the possibility that Poliquin might decide he’d rather run for governor than another term in the House.

As long as U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who’s held her office for two decades, is pondering a potential gubernatorial run, it’s unlikely Poliquin will jump into the race. But if she opts to stay put in the Senate, some think Poliquin might decide he’d rather try to succeed Republican Paul LePage in the Blaine House than head back to Congress.

If Poliquin were to get out of the congressional race, both the GOP and Democrats would likely see a scramble to claim the seat. Politicians who would never risk challenging Poliquin might well leap into the fray if the district was suddenly wide open.

One thing for sure is that Poliquin starts off with a big financial lead over any of the three Democrats who are seeking to take him on.

Poliquin had $1.2 million in his campaign treasury at the end of June. Nobody else has had to report anything yet, but none are anywhere near the Republican’s tally.

Maine’s 2nd District is the largest east of the Mississippi River. With 72 percent of its residents living outside cities, there is only one district in America, Kentucky’s 5th, that has a higher percentage of its voters living in rural areas. There are only two districts in America with fewer black residents.

scollins@sunjournal.com

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