It was geography versus gender as Democrats Maggie Goodlander and Colin Van Ostern faced off in their race for the nomination for the 2nd Congressional District on Jack Heath’s radio show Wednesday morning.
Van Ostern continued his strategy of portraying Goodlander as a fortune hunter, pointing out that most of her financial support comes from Washington, D.C., where she has spent the past 20 years. He himself has lived and worked in New Hampshire for most of that time, he noted.
“Maggie, I think, has raised about four times as much money from the Washington area as she has from people here in New Hampshire,” Van Ostern said. “I think it’s more than just money. I believe that the way you can be a good representative of the people is not dependent on how close your ties are to the powers that be in Washington, D.C., or how many years you’ve spent in the centers of power with the big special interests.”
Goodlander argued that it was important for New Hampshire to send a woman to Congress.
“I believe that women absolutely have a place in the House of Representatives and in the White House, and we have to work really hard to make that happen,” Goodlander said. “I think representation is important. In the House of Representatives, less than 30 percent are women.”
The Granite State’s federal delegation currently consists of three women and one man.
The two candidates largely agreed on the substantive issues: They support raising taxes on businesses and individuals, they support federal legislation to repeal New Hampshire’s late-term abortion ban, and they both expressed support for Israel in the current conflict with Hamas.
When Heath asked how they voted on a House resolution passed earlier this year condemning the popular chant “From the River to the Sea” heard on New Hampshire college campuses as anti-Semitic, both said “yes.”
“Our enemies are Israel’s enemies,” said Goodlander, who is married to President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Goodlander also served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
Both also agreed on Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential campaign: It was his decision, and he is a hero for making that decision.
“I think what he did was an act of patriotism and statesmanship,” Goodlander said. “What we saw from President Biden was a conscious decision to pass the baton himself, it was his prerogative. It was his decision … and I think he’s a patriot for doing it.”
Van Ostern said that despite the president’s performance during the debate and his public display of frailty, “there is no doubt in my mind that Joe Biden is a far stronger candidate than Donald Trump, and I am impressed by his selfless and historic decision to pass the baton to Kamala Harris.”
Several media reports say that his Democratic colleagues pushed Biden out of his candidacy, a fact he himself has acknowledged.
