U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander and liberal reporter Hanna Trudo have a lot in common.
Both are Democrats. Both lived and worked in D.C. And this time last year, neither lived in the New Hampshire congressional districts they represent — or may want to — today.
Goodlander, who worked in the Biden administration and owns a home in Portsmouth, N.H., hadn’t lived in the Second Congressional District since the George W. Bush administration. She rented an apartment last spring in her hometown of Nashua, and six months later was elected to Congress.
Trudo may try to follow that same path.
On Monday, Trudo announced she’s moving back to the Granite State and may run in the Democratic primary to replace First Congressional District Rep. Chris Pappas, who’s running for U.S. Senate.
“As a 4th generation Granite Stater, I take our state motto in N.H., Live Free or Die, seriously,” Trudo posted on Twitter/X on Monday. “Under Donald Trump, we are no longer free. Dems need to stop chasing the magical land of bipartisanship. We need to fight NOW.”
Trudo, who has worked for Politico, the Daily Beast, and The Hill, declined to respond to a reporter’s request for comment.
If she does run, Trudo has made it very clear what sort of Democratic candidate she would be. Her reporting has been solidly progressive, and she has declared Bernie Sanders “the current leader of the Democratic Party.”
NBC News reports on a memo Trudo has written about her possible run. “I haven’t poll tested my pitch,” Trudo reportedly wrote. “I’m simply writing with the same fire I’ve spit for the past decade: Democrats must be better.”
Maura Sullivan, who ran unsuccessfully against Pappas in the 2018 Democratic primary, has already entered the race. On Monday, she told WMUR she’s received the endorsement of three congressional Democrats who, like her, are veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq. They include U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who backed her 2018 candidacy.
“She worked hard for Chris Pappas. She’s worked hard for the Democratic Party in New Hampshire. She’s built a family. She’s built a career, and yet she’s always been there when Democrats needed her, and she’s there for Democrats today,” Moulton said.
Those endorsements add to Sullivan’s standing as a Democrat in the more traditional, as opposed to progressive, wing of the party.
Stefany Shaheen, daughter of retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, has acknowledged she’s considering entering the race. She would also be a candidate from the more establishment side of the Democratic Party, possibly creating a lane for a more “fire-spitting” left-winger like Trudo.
For example, while establishment Democrats have denounced DNC Vice Chair David Hogg’s plans to spend millions of dollars to challenge more moderate members of his party in upcoming primaries, Trudo says she’s with Hogg.
“David Hogg is creating room for the party to engage in the *democratic process* of choosing the best candidates,” she posted on Twitter/X. “If Dems are serious about building a new fighter party, they need to assess who is/is not ready and willing to step up. This is that chance.”
Trudo’s decision to move from journalism to a Democratic primary race won’t do anything to quell Republican complaints that mainstream media outlets are dominated by liberal voices and can’t be trusted to provide objective coverage.
Conservative news outlets were quick to note Trudo’s political allegiance and its reflection on the press.
“Reporter Moves from Covering Dems to Running as One,” wrote National Review.
“Journalist May Run for Congress (as a Democrat, Obviously),” added the Washington Free Beacon.
Trudo has done her part to make the case as well, telling Politico that while working as a journalist, she was pulling for progressive politics. She described herself as “a journalist who’s tired of writing the same story about how Democrats keep losing to Republicans and failing us.”
“I’m used to disrupting the status quo in D.C.,” she told Playbook. “I’ve lived it, I’ve covered it, and I know how to beat the odds.”
Defeating a Shaheen in a Democratic primary would certainly qualify as beating the odds, and winning a Democratic primary as an outspoken, pro-Bernie-Sanders Democrat would be a break with New Hampshire politics as well.
But Trudo could also be the Carol Shea-Porter style candidate Granite State progressives have been waiting for.
“I don’t know much about her, but she’s the first glimmer of hope,” one grassroots progressive told NHJournal Monday.
