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Conversations with the Candidates: Democratic nominee for CD2 Maggie Goodlander

Maggie Goodlander, a Democratic candidate in New Hampshire's 2nd Congressional District, speaks with NHPR Morning Edition Host Rick Ganley on Aug. 14, 2024. Dan Tuohy photo / NHPR
Dan Tuohy
/
NHPR
Maggie Goodlander, a Democratic candidate in New Hampshire's 2nd Congressional District, speaks with NHPR Morning Edition Host Rick Ganley on Aug. 14, 2024. Dan Tuohy photo / NHPR

Election Day is just around the corner. NHPR is sitting down with the candidates running in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District to hear their pitch to voters in these final weeks.

Read on for NHPR Morning Edition host Rick Ganley’s interview with Democrat Maggie Goodlander.


What questions do you have for the candidates running for Congress and governor in the 2024 election? What issues do you want them to address while seeking your vote? Share your thoughts here.


Transcript

Republicans have been critical of President Biden's economic policies, saying there's been too much federal spending under his administration. Do you agree with that? And do you think Congress is going to have to look for ways to cut federal spending?

Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. It's great to be back on NHPR. And as I've traveled around this district, for a small state, the 2nd District is a pretty big one, almost 6,500 square miles. And one of the through lines of my conversations are that people are feeling a lot of pain right now. They're feeling the pain of high prices at the gas station, at the grocery store, at the pharmacy, trying to rent a home or buy a home. And I come to this race with a real belief that Congress can do something about this. It's been far too long since Congress took a hard look at our antitrust and consumer protection laws. And one of the things that has happened under this administration, the Biden-Harris administration, over the last four years has been a return to really focus on competition in our economy. And that is going to have a direct impact on the pain that people are feeling from high prices.

Well, I'm going to ask you again about the federal spending itself, though. Are you anticipating that spending will have to be cut somewhere in order to eventually get to the programs that you'd like to get to, to help folks out?

You know, I think we have a real task. It's been a long time since Congress worked on a bipartisan basis to really address, in a very serious way, our national debt and our deficit, which is itself a national security threat. So I believe deeply that this is something we should do in Congress, and it's been a long time since we've done it. One thing that we could start with, Rick, is an audit of the Pentagon. You know, I served 11 years as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, and I believe deeply in what the United States military can do. But it's been a long time since we took a real rigorous look at our defense spending and audited the Pentagon. But I'd also say that the tax policy that President Donald Trump brought into being during his administration has had a devastating impact on working families across this country and here in New Hampshire. His tax policy has been designed to benefit the biggest corporations and the ultra wealthy, and I believe we should not extend that tax policy. That's going to be a question that Congress will have to take up early on. I believe the wealthy should pay their fair share, and that's going to help us with revenues.

I want to move on to foreign policy. Democratic voters here in New Hampshire and nationwide are divided over President Biden and Congress' response to the war in Gaza. The civilian death toll, as you know, in Gaza and Lebanon, continues to rise, and violence between Israel and Iran continues to escalate. What role do you believe that the U.S. should have in those particular conflicts?

You know, I think that the United States more broadly, and specifically the United States Congress, has a really important role to play in American foreign policy. What I saw early in my career, I worked in the United States Senate for Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. John McCain. This was during a time when there was a bipartisan, bicameral supermajority in Congress, members who were really focused on the full range of threats and opportunities that our country faces across the world. So I believe that we have a real role to play, you know, in being the leader of the free world.

But what is that role specifically when it comes to what's happening with Israel and in Gaza?

You know, you cannot look at the images or read the news from what is happening right now in the Middle East and feel anything but heartbreak. There was a ceasefire in place on Oct. 6. October 7 was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. And the year since then, you know, we marked the one year anniversary of Oct. 7, and I was here at our State House. You know, this has been a devastating year for the Israeli people and for the Palestinian people too, innocent Palestinians who have been disserved by the brutal rulership of Hamas. You know, Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, and Hamas is an enemy of the United States, just as it is an enemy of Israel.

So going forward, you want to see support from the U.S. continue in Israel?

I believe we've got to work towards, in the short term, a ceasefire that will return the hostages who are being held in brutal captivity, including American citizens, a surge in humanitarian assistance to remedy what has been real, genuine human suffering --

But I want to ask you, should the Biden administration -- and we should note that your husband does serve as national security adviser -- should the Biden administration be using its relationship with Israel to push harder for that ceasefire?

And I believe that's exactly what we're seeing right now, Rick. You know, I think American foreign policy happens in multiple branches of our government, in both Congress and in the executive branch. So to me, there is a real role for Congress to be playing here. And, you know, I think the relationship between the United States and Israel has been deepened over time because of the work that the United States Congress has done on a bipartisan basis.

You do have extensive experience working in [Washington], D.C., as you've said, including Capitol Hill. I know many voters feel we're in an age of dysfunction in Congress. Why should voters believe that you're better equipped to get results in such a deeply divided body with, right now, such little public trust?

It's true. We have lost a lot of trust in our institutions. And what I can tell you is I will work in this job in the same way that I've worked my entire career, roll up my sleeves and find ways to work with people who I might not agree with on much of anything, apart from the mission and the work right in front of us. It's a skill I learned in the United States Navy. It's a skill that I've brought and a commitment that I've brought to every job I've done. So what makes me optimistic, Rick, is the job I left to come and run for this seat was at the White House. I was leading the Biden-Harris administration's unity agenda.

It's an agenda that doesn't get a whole lot of attention, because dysfunction, and disunity and chaos get a lot more clicks than unity and progress. But this was an agenda dedicated to the basic idea that we can still come together as Democrats and Republicans to solve the challenges that unite us as Americans. We tackled five pillars: the opioid epidemic, our mental health crisis, fulfilling our sacred obligation to veterans, holding big tech companies accountable, including to keep our kids safe online, and ending cancer as we know it. We saw progress across all five pillars of this agenda, more than 400 pieces of legislation signed into law to advance these basic pillars of the agenda. And this gives me a lot of hope, Rick, because I think in a time of division, what we need are people who are workhorses, who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get things done. And that's what I've done my entire life.

I do want to ask you one final question. The high cost of living and the cost of child care are burdens on many young families in New Hampshire, as we talked about at the top of the interview here. Would you support expanding the child tax credit?

I would, and here's why. We have a real crisis of affordability and availability for care across the spectrum, whether it's child care or elder care, care for people with disabilities in this state. We have a pipeline problem in which we need more providers in this state, but we also need to make this care more affordable. By the way, with respect to the problem of the pipeline of providers, almost half of the people in our state live in child care deserts where they can't actually afford child care or find it. This has had a disproportionate impact on women in this state, who have often had to make the difficult choice of having to give up on their dreams and their careers to stay at home. And look, this is something that we have got to fight with everything we've got for, and I believe it's an area that we could make bipartisan progress on.


Click here for interviews with the top candidates running for Congress and governor in the 2024 election.

For many radio listeners throughout New Hampshire, Rick Ganley is the first voice they hear each weekday morning, bringing them up to speed on news developments overnight and starting their day off with the latest information.
Mary McIntyre is a senior producer at NHPR.
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