Thursday night’s Second Congressional District debate on WMUR was a political fistfight – and the bruises will surely be showing.
An aggressive stance appeared to be the only way forward for Republican candidate Lily Tang Williams, a political underdog from Weare who is being massively outspent by D.C. political insider Democrat Maggie Goodlander.
With less than a week until Election Day, the latest Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll has Goodlander up on Tang Williams 51-43.
Tang Williams’ campaign has yet to air a single television ad, so Thursday’s debate marked her best shot at selling herself and her candidacy to NH-02 district voters.
Goodlander was asked about the staggering inflation rate that has hurt Granite Staters’ family budgets. She responded by dismissing the question. (“We could take an hour to debate and talk about these costs”)
Tang Williams wasted no time landing her first blow.
“You’re part of the Biden administration, you’re just repeating DNC talking points,” Tang Williams, a Chinese expatriate who has built her political bona fides with an inspiring story of escaping her native communist regime, said in response.
Goodlander, a Nashua native who hasn’t voted in the state’s Second Congressional District since 2008, appeared visibly annoyed. Throughout the debate, Goodlander made sure to reference her record serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve, the U.S. Senate working for the late Arizona Republican John McCain, and the U.S. Department of Justice under President Joe Biden.
Those professional benchmarks apparently looked like red meat for Tang Williams, who relished the opportunity to tear into her opponent’s D.C. Beltway connections.
“Don’t you have any independent thinking skills?” Tang Williams said, following up on Goodlander’s response to moderator Adam Sexton’s query about inflation. “It’s the federal government printing money.”
Goodlander soldiered through prior attacks during the Democratic primary over her decision to rent an apartment in Nashua to claim NH-02 residency, despite owning a multi-million dollar home in Portsmouth. She enjoyed the benefit of Tang Williams’ past political campaigns running as a libertarian in Colorado being pointed out by a moderator.
“I left the GOP in 2008,” Tang Williams explained, noting that she immigrated to the U.S. more than 30 years ago. “(Colorado) asked me to run, to use my story, and be a line-holder.”
Moderators, however, continued to push Goodlander on her residency. At one point, Goodlander was asked three different times if she would put down permanent roots inside the district.
“Do you commit to owning a home here?”
Goodlander’s response: “This is an advocacy job that needs you to be on the ground,” she said. “That is what I will do.”
Pressed by moderator Steve Bottari, Goodlander finally answered – sort of.
“Yes, absolutely I live here today, Steve,” she said, before the subject shifted.
And when that subject turned to taxes and inflation, Goodlander cited “corporate monopolies” as the chief culprit for rising prices and called out businesses for “not paying their fair share” in taxes.
Tang Williams again sought to seize upon Goodlander’s answer.
“You are wealthy,” Tang Williams said. “You’re worth between $30-50 million. You pretend to be a renter in Nashua. I don’t have money to run a TV ad and you pretend you are poor and the rent is so high, just go back to your $2 million home in Portsmouth.”
That salvo from Tang Williams prompted Goodlander to issue a response she would repeat several times throughout Thursday’s debate.
“You’re focused on me; I’m focused on voters and the issues that matter to them,” Goodlander said. “New Hampshire is the state that made me who I am today.”
Tang Williams wasn’t finished with trying to land direct blows on Goodlander.
She later name-dropped Goodlander’s husband, Biden national security honcho Jake Sullivan, into her line of attack after being questioned about previous statements she made criticizing the amount of U.S. taxpayer dollars being used to fund Ukraine’s ongoing defense against Russia’s invasion.
“If Democrats want to do this, if billionaires want to do this, if neocons want to do this – please, do, donate your money,” Tang Williams said. “We cannot afford to engage in endless wars, and your husband Jake Sullivan — national security advisor — is causing war, and is incompetent, (and) he should get fired.”
The hit on Goodlander’s husband prompted an oft-repeated defense from the Nashua native.
“Again my opponent is focused on me, and I would appreciate it if we could stick to the issues and not personal attacks,” Goodlander said.
“Your party has become the party of wars,” Tang Williams fired back.
Another curious aspect of Goodlander’s strategy occurred when the topic of immigration surfaced. Tang Williams has made a habit of hammering the Biden administration over its handling of illegal immigration, and on Thursday she again attempted to implicate Goodlander over her role in his administration.
“I’m a legal immigrant,” Tang Williams said, after being questioned about her previously stated support for deporting individuals who entered the U.S. illegally. “It is a slap in the face to all the legal immigrants still waiting in line.
“What kind of message does that send to the world?”
Goodlander defended Democrats’ handling of the issue, referencing the frequently-cited Senate immigration deal that was tied to overseas Ukraine funding. It died last spring.
“We are a nation of immigrants, and I’m living proof of that,” Goodlander said, as she looked directly at Tang Williams, a first-generation American. “My great-great-grandfather came here more than a hundred years ago to Nashua.”
Whether Thursday’s debate — the final between Goodlander and Tang Williams ahead of Election Day — shakes up Goodlander’s advantage remains unknown.
“I know I’m the underdog, but I trust the people to decide,” Tang Williams said in her closing remarks. “I’m independently minded. I’m the embodiment of that American Dream, and I want to make sure we save it.”
