For years, Democrats in New Hampshire’s federal delegation have supported pro-Iran policies like the Obama administration’s Iran deal, and the Biden policy of allowing billions of dollars to flow to the world’s largest terror sponsor.
Now that Iran is sending missile barrages targeting Israeli civilians — missiles made possible in part with the money Democrats approved for Tehran — Granite State Democrats are getting more scrutiny over their Iran policy.
It’s also a particularly problematic issue for Maggie Goodlander, the Democratic nominee working to succeed outgoing six-term U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, who is married to one of the architects of the Obama and Biden Iran policies. Her husband Jake Sullivan is Biden’s national security advisor and was a crucial player in the controversial nuclear deal completed under President Barack Obama.
The facts regarding the U.S. and Iran aren’t in dispute. While the Trump administration and a majority of GOP lawmakers imposed harsh sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran, Democrats like U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen opposed Trump’s actions.
Both publicly denounced President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA, aka “The Iran Deal,” in 2018. And Shaheen was one of a minority of U.S. Senators who voted in favor of deal with Iran in 2015, and she continues to support it even as Tehran funds Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
“Reminder that Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal — supported by Biden and Harris — allowed Iran to develop ballistic missiles that are now targeting 10 million Israelis,” National Review’s Philip Klein tweeted during Iran’s attack on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration approved a waiver giving Iran access to $10 billion in increased revenue. The money went to “an Islamist regime that recently killed three American soldiers, wounded dozens more, shut down shipping in the Red Sea, is rapidly advancing its nuclear weapons program, and is attacking Israel,” Mark Dubowitz with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said at the time.
And a bipartisan group of U.S. foreign policy experts wrote in Newsweek on Tuesday that it’s time to end the Biden administration policy of allowing Iran to sell billions of dollars in oil.
“Iran has been reaping windfall profits from near-record oil production this year, with production doubling from less than 2 million barrels per day in 2019 [when Trump was in the White House] to nearly 4 million barrels per day now, and with oil exports increasing from practically zero to nearly 2 million barrels per day. This represents a $100 billion increase in revenues for use by the Ayatollah to attack Israel and jeopardize U.S. national security,” they wrote.
All four Democrats in New Hampshire’s federal delegation support the Biden Iran policy. With Iran’s attacks on Israel, that policy is emerging as an issue in New Hampshire’s two congressional races.
In the Second Congressional District, Democrat Goodlander was serving in the Biden administration when Biden implemented his Iran policy. She has been careful to avoid direct answers in recent interviews when asked about Israel’s military efforts.
When WMUR-TV’s Adam Sexton asked how she answers her fellow Democrats, particularly younger voters, who accuse Israel of committing genocide and war crimes, Goodlander tip-toed around the question.
“When it comes to questions about whether a nation state has committed a war crime, these are judgments that are made by prosecutors and investigators, not by congressional candidates,” Goodlander answered, without ever saying whether she believes Israel has committed war crimes, or even mentioning Israel directly.
During an editorial board meeting with The Keene Sentinel, the newspaper noted Goodlander “sympathizes with those facing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza” and said “a two-state solution is needed in which Israel’s security is preserved while the Palestinian people can have a better future and dignity, free from the repression of Hamas.”
Lily Tang Williams, the Weare Republican running against Goodlander, said Israel “has my full support in its right to defend itself against this aggression.”
“As the only democracy in the Middle East and one of our strongest allies, we must stand with them in their fight against evil,” she added.
Tang Williams put the blame at the feet of the current presidential administration.
“The world is on fire because we have weak and absent leadership in this White House,” Tang Williams said. “It dismantled sanctions on the Iranian economy and flooded the regime with hundreds of billions of dollars, which enabled Iran to back Hamas and other terrorist groups.
“We need peace through strong foreign policy.”
Unlike Goodlander, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas has a voting record in Congress on the issues of Israel, Iran and foreign policy. Republicans say it’s mixed at best.
Weeks after Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion, Pappas voted in support of a Republican-sponsored resolution to “stand with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists.” But he also voted against a bipartisan proposal to send Israel $14.3 billion in aid last November.
Pappas’s vote prompted sharp criticism from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“By refusing to help Israel, Chris Pappas is perpetuating the growing antisemitism rotting the Democratic Party to the core,” NRCC spokeswoman Savannah Viar said at the time. “Israel has a right to defend itself and America has an obligation to stand alongside the Jewish people – but not according to Chris Pappas.”
Prior to the Oct. 7 attack, Pappas also joined Kuster in voting to kill a bill aimed at establishing a stated congressional opposition to the anti-Israel “Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions” movement aimed at pressuring public officials and private organizations to cancel relations with the Jewish state.
Russell Prescott, a former member of New Hampshire’s Executive Council and the GOP nominee in the NH-01 race, called out Pappas and his fellow Democrats.
“The United States needs to stand with Israel, and this latest attack from Iran stems from our enemies who look at the progressive foreign policies of Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Chris Pappas and have come to the conclusion that the United States is weak and that they can attack our allies,” he told NHJournal. “If elected, I will make sure the United States always stands with Israel and all of our allies while making clear that this type of behavior from Iran will not be tolerated.”
A new poll shows Prescott trailing the incumbent Democrat by just four points, 46 to 42 percent.
Neither Goodlander nor Pappas responded to requests for comment.
