Goodlander adds “New Hampshire Congresswoman” to her government resume • New Hampshire Bulletin

Maggie Goodlander spent years in Washington, DC, working in various branches of government. On Tuesday, voters in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District sent her back to the capital as the new U.S. representative.

Goodlander, a former Biden administration official with close political ties, will replace Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster, who has held the seat since 2013 and did not seek re-election. Goodlander has spent months positive about her time in D.C. while her opponents criticized her time outside the District.

She focused her campaign on cracking down on the “bullies,” whom she described as big corporations and extreme politicians. Goodlander also entered the race with one deeply personal story: She needed immediate care after losing her son at 20 weeks of pregnancy. Instead, she said, she faced delays caused by an influx of patients from states with restrictive abortion laws. Because her appointment was made a day late, she had to give birth to her stillborn son in a hotel bathtub.

Goodlander said she would “fight like hell” to restore federal abortion protections that were once guaranteed Roe v. Wadewhich was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2022.

Around 11:30 p.m., Goodlander, 38, hugged supporters in Concord and shouted, “Guys, thank you – it’s official.” Almost official, she added. Her Republican opponent had just asked her to give in.

Speaking to reporters, Goodlander — who served as a senior White House adviser and Justice Department official in the Biden administration — said she would work to represent all of her constituents, regardless of whether they voted for her. To be productive in Congress, she said she would build on President Joe Biden’s “unity agenda,” which she briefly helped lead. The focus was on addressing issues related to mental health, Big Tech, veterans, cancer and the opioid epidemic.

The Nashua native defeated Lily Tang Williams, a libertarian-leaning Republican who has made several unsuccessful bids for Congress in Colorado and New Hampshire. Williams, a rental property manager who said she fears the U.S. is becoming more like her native China, advocated for cutting government spending, including by abolishing the Education Department, and wanted the issue of abortion to remain with states. Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supported Williams on Sunday.

With 86 percent of the vote, Goodlander led Williams, 53.6 percent to 46.4 percent. The race was called by the Associated Press at 1:07 a.m Before the polls closed, Williams posted online: “I’m a winner regardless of the outcome tonight.”

Although this was her first run for public office, Goodlander was deeply involved in politics throughout her life. Her mother, Elizabeth Tamposi, is a former Republican state representative who worked in the administration of President George H. W. Bush; Her grandfather, Samuel Tamposi, was a real estate developer who was active in Republican politics.

After growing up in Nashua, Goodlander earned bachelor’s and law degrees from Yale. She has spent her career in various government roles: as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve; a speechwriter and foreign policy adviser to independent Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman; a speechwriter for Arizona Republican Senator John McCain; and law clerk to Merrick Garland, then chief judge of the D.C. District of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

Less than a year ago, before running for Congress, she rented a home in Nashua, which is in the 2nd District. At a forum in October, Goodlander said she plans to raise her future children in the 2nd District.

“I’m a renter, and there should be more renters in Congress,” Goodlander said The Boston Globe — a statement that drew backlash over the $1.2 million home she and her husband Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, own 1st district.

Goodlander has repeatedly defended her ties to the district, saying she is a “Nashua girl” through and through, citing her time teaching constitutional law at Dartmouth and the University of New Hampshire. “This is the district that made me who I am,” she said at a forum.

The national party establishment helped her get into Congress. Amid a heated primary against former executive Colin Van Ostern, Goodlander received an endorsement from Hillary Clinton, who in 2015, between fundraisers for her presidential run, reportedly gave a reading at Goodlander’s wedding Politico. Sullivan, her husband, had been Clinton’s adviser.

Goodlander had a fundraising lead of about a million dollars – including a big chunk of it Cash from abroad – in front of her main opponent, who was quickly chasing after her after losing the race by 28 points. In the general election, Goodlander outperformed Williams by a wide margin OpenSecretsa nonprofit organization that tracks campaign finance.

Now Goodlander returns to DC with a new government gig.