Oops.
Democrat Maura Sullivan is widely believed to be a strong contender, if not the frontrunner, in the Democratic primary to fill U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas’ seat now that he’s running for U.S. Senate.
But her announcement Thursday morning went a bit off script when her first social media post of the campaign described her as a “Marine Iraq veteran, a mom of three and a lifelong Granite Stater.”
Not quite.
Sullivan, 45, was born in Evanston, Ill., grew up in the Land of Lincoln, and attended Northwestern University. After serving abroad in the Marines, she attended Harvard and was eventually tapped by the Obama administration. That job sent her to the D.C. suburbs of Virginia.
Sullivan eventually made it to Portsmouth, N.H. in July of 2017.
She announced her candidacy in the 2018 1st CD Democratic primary three months later.
One of the top issues that kept her in second place behind eventual winner Chris Pappas? Accusations that she was a carpetbagger.
Today, she’s a “lifelong Granite Stater.”
The Twitter/X post was deleted less than an hour after it was originally posted. It was replaced with a version that leaves out any reference to how long Sullivan has lived in the state.
But people noticed.
“Lifelong carpetbagger?” quipped one New Hampshire Democrat to NHJournal.
“‘Lifelong?’” another said. “Well, life begins at conception — of the idea of moving to a state you’ve never lived in to run for Congress.”
It also doesn’t help that before running in New Hampshire in 2018, she considered running in Illinois and Virginia.
Still, a single stumble isn’t likely to slow Sullivan down. She was the top fundraiser ($1.6 million) in the crowded, ten-way 2018 primary, though more than 96 percent came from out of state. She beat better-known candidates like Deaglan McEachern (now mayor of Portsmouth) and Levi Sanders, whose father is two-time New Hampshire presidential primary winner, Sen. Bernie Sanders (who declined to endorse his own son).
And New Hampshire has a history of embracing carpetbaggers. Rep. Maggie Goodlander hadn’t lived in the 2nd District since the George W. Bush administration when she rented an apartment there last spring.
The real challenge for Sullivan may not be geography but legacy.
The Boston Globe’s James Pindell reports that a source close to U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s daughter Stefany tells him she’s seriously considering entering the 1st District Democratic primary.
