CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Democrat Maggie Goodlander, a former senior White House aide with deep political connections, announced Thursday that she is running for Congress in her home state of New Hampshire.
Goodlander, married to President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivanis the third Democrat to enter the race for victory Rep. American. Annie Kuster, a fellow Democrat who announced in March that she would not seek a seventh term in the state’s 2nd Congressional District. At least five Republicans have also announced their candidacy to represent the district, which stretches along the western half of the state and includes Concord and Nashua.
Goodlander, 37, grew up in Nashua and recently returned there from Washington, where she worked at the Justice Department as a top antitrust official and adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland before joining the office of Justice Chief of Staff. White House earlier this year. Previously, she served as an intelligence officer in the Naval Reserve and taught constitutional law at the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth College.
“Right-wing judges, extremist politicians, big corporations all have too much power,” she said in a campaign announcement video released Thursday. “I’m ready to face these bullies. That’s why I’m running for Congress.
The video features Goodlander’s mother, Betty Tamposi, who lost the GOP primary for the seat in 1988.
Goodlander, born on Election Day in 1986 after her parents stopped to vote on their way to the hospital, described her own efforts to start a family. She said she lost a baby last year, nearly 20 weeks into her pregnancy, and that the experience strengthened her resolve to fight for reproductive rights.
The White House confirmed Thursday that Goodlander was no longer employed there. Her husband, Sullivan, will follow federal law barring government employees from using their jobs for political purposes, said a White House official, who was not authorized to speak on the record and insisted on the anonymity.
Are also candidates in the Democratic primary on September 10 Colin Van Easter, former member of the Governor’s Executive Council, and State Senator Becky Whitley. Republican candidates include Lily Tang Williams, who previously sought the GOP nomination, and Vikram Mansharamani, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2022.
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
