The newest candidate in the Second Congressional Democratic primary wants you to know she comes from an old Nashua political family.
“My name is Maggie Tamposi Goodlander, and I was born on Election Day right here in Nashua, New Hampshire.” So begins the candidate’s announcement video, released Thursday, with the disclaimer “Approved by Maggie Tamposi Goodlander.”
The announcement video is filled with images from Nashua politics, including conversations with Goodlander’s mother, Betty Tamposi. A former New Hampshire state representative, Betty Tamposi also ran for Congress in the Second Congressional District—as a Republican. She served in President George H.W. Bush’s administration before being forced out over a minor scandal involving Bill Clinton’s passport.
And Goodlander’s grandfather, Samuel Tamposi, was also a major political player in the GOP (not to mention a part owner of the Boston Red Sox).
So perhaps it’s no surprise that Maggie is running as “Tamposi Goodlander.”
But it certainly is new. A Google search for the name before April 2024 turned up zero results.
Betty Tamposi isn’t the only Republican to appear in Goodlander’s campaign launch video. There’s also a photo of her with her old boss, U.S. Sen. John McCain. After serving as a senior advisor to him, Goodlander went on to work as a White House adviser and a deputy assistant attorney general in the Biden Justice Department’s antitrust division.
She is married to Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The two own a home in Portsmouth — which is not in the district. But she told the left-leaning Boston Globe that she just signed a lease for a home in Nashua.
“I am a renter, and there should be more renters in Congress,” she said.
Supporters of the two Democrats already in the primary, former Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern and state Sen. Becky Whitley, tell NHJournal on background that there should be more actual residents of the district running, not D.C. insiders.
“Cosplaying as a humble ‘renter’ when she owns millions of dollars worth of homes outside of the district — and even owns interests in a golf course in Florida — is not the best way to win over savvy New Hampshire voters who can smell bullshit a mile away,” a longtime New Hampshire Democratic activist said.
UNH political science professor Dante Scala wonders if Goodlander’s arrival will cause the other candidates to adjust their strategies.
“Will all three studiously avoid foreign policy, or will one of them oppose Biden on Israel and Gaza, in the hopes of courting progressives?”
Coos County Democratic activist Ted Bosen hopes so. He says that if Goodlander embraces the cause of Gaza and “demands an end to the slaughter, I am on board and will bring others… There are many progressives who feel the same way.”
“If not, then despite great credentials (clerking for [U.S. Supreme Court Justice] Breyer and [Attorney General Merrick] Garland) she is just another centrist Democrat, and they are all beginning to look like feckless clones of one another.”
But the strongest anti-Goodlander reaction came from outgoing Congresswoman Annie Kuster, who has endorsed Van Ostern in the race to replace her. In a statement released by the Van Ostern campaign, Kuster said, “I believe strongly this race will be decided by the people of our district — not by wealthy or powerful interests from outside our state.”
Regardless of the name she uses to campaign, Goodlander is certain to have some of the biggest names in the national Democratic Party backing her bid for Congress. Bill and Hillary Clinton both attended her wedding (Hillary even had a small role in the ceremony), and she and her husband have deep ties their fellow members of the Biden administration.
But will that win over votes in New Hampshire, particularly in 2024?
“The [New Hampshire] Republicans are running against Washington, D.C.,” a veteran Democratic activist told NHJournal. “And we’re going to pick a candidate who’s from Washington? Someone nobody has ever heard of or seen at a campaign event? I’m not convinced.”
Scala has similar questions.
“I hope she has a good pair of walking shoes,” Scala said. “She has a lot of Democrats to meet this summer and not much time to do it.”
