Maggie Goodlander

Margaret Vivian Goodlander (born November 4, 1986) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative from New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district since 2025. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Goodlander served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve and worked as a foreign policy advisor in the United States Senate. After law school, she was a law clerk for Chief Judge Merrick Garland and Justice Stephen Breyer. She served as counsel on the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment of Donald Trump. During the Biden administration, she was an attorney at the United States Department of Justice and senior White House advisor. She was elected to Congress in 2024 to replace retiring Congresswoman Annie Kuster.

Early life and education

Goodlander was born on November 4, 1986, and raised in Nashua, New Hampshire. She is a member of the Tamposi family, a well-connected prominent political family in New Hampshire; her grandfather, Samuel Tamposi, was a Republican real estate developer who partially owned the Boston Red Sox, and her mother, Betty Tamposi, was a Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives before serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs under President George H. W. Bush.

After graduating from the Groton School in 2005, Goodlander received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Yale College in 2009 and then attended Yale Law School, where she received a Juris Doctor in 2016. As a student at Yale, she was a research fellow in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, and Libya.

Naval and legal career

After graduating from Yale College in 2009, Goodlander worked as a senior foreign policy advisor for U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain. She served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve for 11 years, reaching the rank of lieutenant.

After graduating from Yale Law School in 2016, Goodlander served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2016 to 2017 and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer from 2017 to 2018. She was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in 2019.

Goodlander served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment of Donald Trump, where she co-authored a 55-page report describing the constitutional grounds for impeaching Trump. Following Trump's acquittal by the U.S. Senate in February 2020, she began working as counsel to Co-Equal, an activist organization that advocates for increased congressional funding and support for federal agencies that provide research and policy advice to members of Congress.

Goodlander taught constitutional law at the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth College from 2019 to 2021. She also served on the boards of the New Hampshire Women's Foundation, New Hampshire Legal Assistance, the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire, and the Rudman Center Advisory Board.

In January 2021, Goodlander joined the United States Department of Justice as counselor to the attorney general under Garland, who had become U.S. attorney general under President Joe Biden and under whom Goodlander clerked after law school. She served as a deputy assistant attorney general overseeing the international, appellate, and policy work of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division from September 2022 to February 2024. After leaving the Justice Department, she briefly served as a White House senior advisor, where she led the Biden administration's Unity Agenda for the Nation.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2024

On May 9, 2024, Goodlander announced her candidacy in the Democratic primary for New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district in the 2024 elections to succeed retiring U.S. Representative Annie Kuster. Her mother, Betty Tamposi, ran for the same seat as a Republican in 1988 but lost the primary to Chuck Douglas, who had asserted that it would be inappropriate for a mother to hold political office while raising young children. Goodlander defeated former New Hampshire Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern, who had been endorsed by Kuster, with 63.8% of the vote to Van Ostern's 36.2%. In the general election, Goodlander defeated Republican nominee and libertarian activist Lily Tang Williams 52.9% to 47.1%.

Tenure

Goodlander assumed office on January 3, 2025. She succeeded retiring U.S. Representative Annie Kuster.

In 2025, Goodlander was one of 46 House Democrats who joined all Republicans to vote for the Laken Riley Act. Goodlander had initially expressed interest for a 2026 Senate run, but announced in April 2025 that she would not run.

Committee assignments

For the 119th Congress:
* Committee on Armed Services
** Subcommittee on Military Personnel
** Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces
* Committee on Small Business
** Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access
** Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations
** Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Supply Chains

Personal life

Goodlander is married to Jake Sullivan, who served as United States national security advisor under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025. They met at the Munich Security Conference during the Obama administration when Goodlander worked for U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman and Sullivan worked as an advisor for then- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. They married on June 6, 2015, in New Haven, Connecticut. They rent a home in Nashua, New Hampshire, and also own a $1.2 million home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Goodlander became pregnant in late 2022, but during her pregnancy, the fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition and died in utero. While awaiting a medical procedure to remove the fetus, Goodlander went into labor and gave birth to a stillborn son in a hotel bathtub on Easter. She has cited the experience as inspiring her to campaign for abortion rights.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodlander, Maggie
1986 births
Living people
21st-century American naval officers
21st-century American women lawyers
21st-century American women politicians
21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives
21st-century New Hampshire politicians
American people of Aromanian descent
Biden administration personnel
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Hampshire
Female members of the United States House of Representatives
Female United States Navy officers
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Military personnel from New Hampshire
New Hampshire lawyers
Politicians from Nashua, New Hampshire
United States Department of Justice officials
United States Navy reservists
Women in New Hampshire politics
Yale College alumni
Yale Law School alumni