Maggie Goodlander, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Biden administration and the wife of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, won the heated Democratic primary contest in the race for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH).

Goodlander was declared the winner over Colin Van Ostern, a former member of the state’s Executive Council and Democrats’ 2016 gubernatorial nominee, less than an hour after polls closed in New Hampshire on Tuesday. With most precincts reporting, Goodlander was comfortably beating Van Ostern with 63% of the vote. Van Ostern conceded as results were being tabulated.

Goodlander has a lengthy resume working for both Democrats and Republicans in Washington. Most recently, she served as a senior advisor at the White House, leading President Joe Biden’s “Unity Agenda” before announcing her bid for Kuster’s 2nd Congressional District seat in May. For the three years prior, she served as deputy assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department. 

She clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and also for Attorney General Merrick Garland when he was chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court. Goodlander served as counsel to House Judiciary Committee Democrats during their first impeachment of former President Donald Trump, and as a senior advisor to the late Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT), both of whom were stalwart pro-Israel lawmakers. She spent over 10 years as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve. 

While Goodlander is a Democrat, she hails from a successful and politically active family in Republican politics in New Hampshire. Her mother, Betty Tamposi, served in President George H.W. Bush’s administration and was a GOP legislator in the New Hampshire Statehouse. Her grandfather Samuel Tamposi was a longtime GOP activist and a successful real estate developer. He was also a part owner of the Boston Red Sox.