NASHUA — Maggie Goodlander, who recently left her job as a senior White House aide to move back here to her hometown, formally launched her campaign Thursday for New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District.
Goodlander, 37, is the third Democrat to enter the race since six-term Representative Annie M. Kuster announced in late March she would not seek reelection. Although she’s up against Kuster’s hand-picked successor, her entrance is a striking development on account of her resume and extensive political network.
“This is the city where I was born and raised. It’s the city that my family has called home for over 100 years,” Goodlander told the Boston Globe as she looked out the window of her Nashua living room during her first interview confirming her candidacy.
A graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, Goodlander worked as an advisor to US senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain, clerked for US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the US Department of Justice before her stint at the White House.
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Her political campaign might catch the attention of an especially broad audience, since her husband, Jake Sullivan, was a top aide to Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 election and now serves as President Biden’s National Security Advisor. Clinton delivered a reading at their 2015 wedding, where the guest list was a veritable who’s-who of Democratic power players.
Now that she has moved back to Nashua and launched her congressional bid, Goodlander is embarking on the next challenge of her career: convincing locals in the western half of New Hampshire, including Nashua and Concord, that she is well-rooted and well-suited to represent their interests on Capitol Hill.
Goodlander held a rainbow-striped ceramic mug filled with tea as she pointed out her window to St. Joseph Hospital, where she was born; Nashua City Hall, where she cast her first vote for president, in 2008; and other sites where she said her family members settled and made a living over the years.
“This has always been my home and always will be,” she said.
Goodlander’s family roots run deep in New Hampshire. Her grandfather Samuel Tamposi was a prominent real estate developer in Nashua, part-owner of the Boston Red Sox, and a major player in GOP politics. Her mother, Betty Tamposi, ran for congress as a Republican in 1988, but lost in the primary.
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Goodlander herself hasn’t resided in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District for years. She and Sullivan bought a house in 2018 in Portsmouth, which is in the state’s other congressional district.
They still own the house in Portsmouth, but Goodlander said she recently signed a lease for her home in Nashua.
“I am a renter, and there should be more renters in Congress,” she added.
In the Democratic primary, Goodlander is up against former Executive Councilor and 2016 gubernatorial nominee Colin Van Ostern and current state Senator Becky Whitley. Van Ostern, who previously served as Kuster’s campaign manager, already won her endorsement — but Goodlander said that won’t hold her back.
“I have always admired Annie,” Goodlander said. “She is a voter in this district, and I respect her choices. She’s one voter, and I’m looking forward to making my case to all the voters in this district.”
In a statement released Thursday by Van Ostern’s campaign, Kuster said she and other voters in this district are backing Van Ostern because of his track record of restoring Planned Parenthood funding, expanding Medicaid, and building debt-free college programs.
“I believe strongly this race will be decided by the people of our district — not by wealthy or powerful interests from outside our state,” she said.
Van Ostern and Whitley have each emphasized protecting reproductive health care and abortion access as key policy priorities for their campaigns, and Goodlander said that makes sense, given the patchwork of state laws that have emerged since the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
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“For me, this has been a huge piece of my professional life, and it’s deeply personal to me, too,” Goodlander said. “My husband, Jake, and I are trying to start a family.”
Goodlander said she learned on Christmas Day 2022 that she was pregnant, but it became clear about 20 weeks into the pregnancy that her baby would not survive. She did not undergo an abortion, but she said she experienced firsthand how difficult, stressful, and personal decisions about reproductive health care often are, even for those who have legal options, supportive family, and access to quality care.
“I cannot imagine there being any constraints on a person who is trying to make decisions that are just the most morally complicated, medically complicated,” she said. “To have any constraints at all in making a decision about what you have to do to save your own life is just, it’s unthinkable. … The current regime just doesn’t make any sense.”
Goodlander also touted her work on antitrust issues for the DOJ, where she said she fought back against “the kinds of abuses that big corporations are perpetrating on consumers and workers alike in the industries that matter most to hard-working people around the state.” As one success story, she cited a federal appellate court’s recent decision allowing the DOJ to reopen its investigation into the National Association of Realtors.
Several candidates have stepped forward to run in the Republican primary for New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District as well. They include Vikram Mansharamani, a businessman from Lincoln who finished fourth in the GOP’s 2022 primary for US Senate, and Lily Tang Williams of Weare, who finished third in the GOP’s 2022 primary for the 2nd Congressional District.
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The filing period runs June 5-14, the primaries will be held Sept. 10, and the general election will be held Nov. 5, along with the presidential election.
This story has been updated to include a statement released by Colin Van Ostern’s campaign.
Steven Porter can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @reporterporter.