A previous Biden administration senior formal and the spouse of the president’s countrywide stability adviser is on the verge of launching a bid for Congress in the essential northeastern battleground state in which she was born and raised.
Maggie Goodlander, the spouse of countrywide protection adviser Jake Sullivan and a previous leading law firm in Biden’s administration who served as a deputy assistant legal professional normal at the Justice Department, is probably to announce her candidacy for the open seat in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, Democratic sources confirm to Fox News.
The announcement, which could arrive as early as this 7 days, would elevate an previously high-profile race to be successful longtime Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster in a blue-leaning but competitive district in a key basic election battleground condition.
Goodlander would join a burgeoning subject of candidates aiming to triumph the six-expression Kuster, who declared in late March that she would retire from Congress rather than look for re-election.
SHOCKER: LONGTIME DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSWOMAN IN BATTLEGROUND State ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
Maggie Goodlander, former deputy assistant U.S. legal professional normal, at the Office of Justice in Washington, D.C., on Monday, March 27, 2023. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Visuals)
“Maggie is grateful for the encouragement she’s acquired from Granite Staters and will be building a determination in the coming days,” Scott Merrick, a Democratic operative and veteran of several Democratic strategies in New Hampshire, told Fox News.
Goodlander, if she operates as predicted, could facial area loads of scrutiny about Biden administration polices – the two domestic and international – above her ties to Republicans and more than her residency. Goodlander’s congressional marketing campaign would also likely attract countrywide awareness to the New Hampshire race and probably garner high-profile endorsements.
Goodland married Sullivan virtually nine yrs back when he was doing the job as a overseas policy advisor to previous Secretary of Condition Hillary Clinton throughout her 2016 presidential marketing campaign. The couple’s wedding, attended by notable political figures including Clinton, now-Secretary of Point out Anthony Blinken and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, was a snapshot of the couple’s very long background in Democratic politics.
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Sullivan worked as Klobuchar’s main counsel ahead of serving as an adviser on Clinton’s 2008 Democratic presidential major campaign and later on on former President Obama’s normal election presidential campaign.
He served as deputy main of staff to Clinton throughout her decades as secretary of state in the Obama administration. Right after Clinton departed the administration, Sullivan turned then-Vice President Joe Biden’s best security aide.
White Home countrywide protection adviser Jake Sullivan speaks for the duration of a push briefing at the White Property in Washington, D.C., on Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Sullivan then served as a top adviser on Clinton’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign. 4 a long time later on, he was just one of Biden’s to start with appointments subsequent the 2020 presidential election.
While not as properly known nationally as her higher-profile husband, Goodlander hails from a distinguished New Hampshire household.
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Her grandfather, Sam Tamposi, was a important player in condition Republican politics. On top of that, her mom, Betty Tamposi, ran for the Dwelling in 1988 in the 2nd Congressional District but shed in the GOP key.
In some means, Goodlander’s tale mirrors that of Kuster, the woman she is trying to succeed in Congress. Kuster’s mothers and fathers were being prominent Republicans in New Hampshire, but she ran as a Democrat.
Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire (NH-02) marches in an Independence Working day parade on July 4, 2022 in Amherst, New Hampshire. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Goodlander, a Yale College and Yale Regulation College graduate, served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and worked as an adviser to late Sens. Joe Lieberman and John McCain on the Senate Homeland Security and Authorities Affairs Committee.
She also served as a legislation clerk to Attorney Normal Merrick Garland during his tenure as chief choose on the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
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Goodlander would be a part of a Democratic principal industry that consists of Colin Van Ostern, who labored as Kuster’s marketing campaign manager in 2010 in her very first operate for Congress, and who later on received two phrases as a New Hampshire govt councilor in advance of winning the 2016 Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
Van Ostern introduced his bid the day right after Kuster’s retirement announcement and was endorsed by the incumbent a pair of months later on.
Though Van Ostern has landed a good deal of Granite Point out aid, Goodlander’s entry into the race could possibly shift the landscape.
“I mean, it truly is really scarce to have someone of this caliber who is 37, with fairly unimpeachable roots in the district, a huge national community, and a demonstrable bipartisan report, who isn’t already an elected official. It would be a really remarkable dynamic in one of the nation’s leading congressional races,” a veteran Democratic operative in New Hampshire who asked to remain anonymous to talk much more freely informed Fox News.
Condition Sen. Becky Whitley, a progressive Democrat, is also jogging to realize success Kuster.
A handful of Republicans, like 2022 Senate candidate Vikram Mansharamani and Lily Tang Williams, who is producing her second straight bid for the congressional nomination, are working.
Goodlander and Sullivan invest much of their time in the nation’s funds due to get the job done, but they own a house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Though the port town on the New Hampshire Seacoast is located in the state’s Very first Congressional District, the geography would not avert Goodlander from jogging in the Next District. The U.S. Structure only mandates that a prospect need to reside in the state in which they are functioning in, not the unique congressional district.
The most new high-profile illustration of a Democratic congressional prospect in New Hampshire campaigning in a district outside their residence was six a long time back, when Levi Sanders – the son of Sen. Bernie Sanders – ran in the Initially District even however he lived in the 2nd District.
Though Goodland grew up in the 2nd District, data reviewed by Fox Information Electronic exhibit that the final time Goodlander voted there was by absentee ballot for the 2008 presidential key and typical elections.
Goodlander registered in New Hampshire’s 1st District in 2016.
Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
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