The 2nd Congressional District: As Goodlander seeks reelection, three say she hasn’t earned it

In New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, there are three leading candidates who want to take Rep. Maggie Goodlander’s place in the U.S. House of Representatives: Paige Beauchemin, Lily Tang Williams, and Victor Orlando.

Voters living in the western half of the state from both parties will go to the polls Tuesday and make their primary picks.

Democratic voters will decide whether to keep Goodlander as their nominee or go with a new nominee in Beauchemin, a progressive state representative.

On the Republican side, Williams and Orlando lead the polls, but voters will also see Michael Callis and Dan Nicolson on their ballots, who have not campaigned as actively.

A freshman rep seeking a second term

Goodlander has represented the 2nd District since winning election for the first time in 2024.

Before returning to her home state and running for Congress, Goodlander worked at the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden. Before that, she was a foreign policy adviser for the late U.S. Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman; served as an attorney for the House Judiciary Committee during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment hearings; and as a clerk to former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

While she was born in Nashua, Goodlander’s work took her away from New Hampshire. In her first bid for Congress, she faced “carpetbagger” allegations for running for office immediately after moving back to her home state.

“Two years ago the people in the 2nd District put their trust in me,” Goodlander said, “which has meant that every day since, I’ve woken up and tried to really listen and understand what their challenges are and what their opportunities are, and how I can deliver on both.”

As a freshman representative, Goodlander has been a centrist voter serving on the Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Small Business. In an interview with the Bulletin, she touted her involvement in the lawsuit that overturned some of Trump’s tariffs, her public opposition to rate hikes at local utility companies, and her vote for the bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act.

“It’s a bill that is going to help us build more homes, which is exactly what we need right now to bring down costs,” she said of the housing legislation. “And it’s a bill that’s going to help us take on predatory corporate practices. It’s a first step that I want to build on. I think we’ve got a lot of follow-on work to do.”

Goodlander also emphasized the “unprecedented moment in our country’s history” she argues Trump has created.

“We have the most dangerous president in American history, who is responsible for a full-blown affordability crisis that has very clear culprits,” she said. “He’s waged wars: the war in Iran and these trade wars that have absolutely crushed people at every corner of this state.”

She characterized herself as someone fighting against Trump’s agenda.

“We’ve got an administration that’s trying to dismantle government from within,” she said. “And making it (government) work has been my singular focus because that’s how you deliver for people.”

An August UNH poll showed Goodlander handily beating Beauchemin, 59%-19%.

A progressive challenger

Beauchemin has represented Nashua’s Ward 4 in the state House of Representatives since winning a special election in 2023. She’s a registered nurse and a mother of three who has tried to characterize herself as the working-class, everyday person in the race.

In the State House, she’s supported maternal health-related legislation and mostly progressive causes. She also faced a formal reprimand from her House colleagues earlier this year for brandishing her middle finger at Gov. Kelly Ayotte during her State of the State address.

Beauchemin told the Bulletin that Goodlander’s 2025 vote in favor of the Laken Riley Act, which Beauchemin opposed, was one of the top reasons she got into the race. Goodlander was one of 46 House Democrats who voted in favor of the legislation, an immigration and law enforcement bill pushed by Republicans following the death of a Georgia nursing student at the hands of an immigrant. The bill was criticized by progressives and immigration advocates who argued it disregards immigrants’ due process rights, gives too much power to state attorneys general, and strengthened ICE ahead of a series of aggressive crackdowns in Minneapolis, Chicago, and elsewhere. Opponents also argue crimes by immigrants are rare and that Riley’s tragic death was an outlier.

“She really courted the Latino vote and told them she would be there for them,” Beauchemin said. “And then her first vote, she betrayed them. So that for me really showed where she is on integrity.”

Goodlander told the Bulletin she disagrees with the notion that the vote lifted guardrails off of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She said she voted for it because “we are a nation of immigrants, and … we’re a nation of laws too, and I believe that in this country, if you’ve come here unlawfully and you commit a crime, there should be immigration consequences for that.”

According to the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the Laken Riley Act requires ICE to detain immigrants charged but not convicted of certain crimes with no provision allowing for the person’s release if the criminal charges are later dropped. Notably, the law applies to immigrants with legal status in the country.

Beauchemin has also taken aim at campaign funding Goodlander received from pro-Israel groups. Beauchemin said as congresswoman, she would vote to end aid to Israel.

U.S. military aid to Israel has become a flashpoint in Democratic politics as public opinion sours on Israel amid its multi-front wars, and as more and more independent experts conclude the Middle Eastern country is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

“She will not recognize the genocide that is happening in Gaza,” Beauchemin said of her primary rival. “She takes AIPAC and other Israel-aligned lobby money, and that is another deal breaker.”

Goodlander has recently curtailed her support for Israel. In July, she voted in favor of an unsuccessful effort to cut $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel

“I’ve said that we need a reset in the relationship,” Goodlander said. “And that reset, at bottom, really comes down to a reset in how American taxpayer dollars have been used over the past two years.”

Beauchemin said if elected, she’ll push for a single-payer Medicare for All system, an end to the Citizens United v. FEC (a 2010 court decision that opened the door to “dark money” in politics), and pro-immigrant policies. She emphasized the differences between her and Goodlander.

“You’ve got a situation here where you could not have two people who are more different,” Beauchemin said. “Our backgrounds, our personalities, our philosophies, our priorities, our values. You take one look, you listen to each of us for two minutes, and it’s very, very clear how different we are.”

Seeking a rematch

Williams, who lives in Weare, is a perennial name on the ballot in the 2nd Congressional District. This is her third time running for the seat. On Tuesday, she’s hoping to earn a rematch with Goodlander, who defeated her in a close 2024 general election. Williams earned 47% of the vote that year in a left-leaning district that includes Keene, Concord, and West Lebanon. Williams also ran in 2020, but did not win the primary.

Williams is a libertarian who moved to New Hampshire from Colorado — where she also ran unsuccessfully for Congress — as part of the Free State Project. She was born in China and has made her upbringing there and opposition to the Communist regime central to her political persona.

Williams believes the dynamics would be different in a general election rematch with Goodlander this cycle.

“She’s an incumbent,” Williams said. “She has to come out, explain her vote, and defend her voting record. And I’m focused on kitchen table issues for Granite Staters who are struggling, and I’m in touch with regular people who don’t have resources.”

Williams has been seen as a far-right candidate for much of her career. Last election cycle, she faced criticisms of antisemitism for sharing memes online alleging the Holocaust was spurred by Jews who “gave up their firearms to Hitler.” During a 2024 debate, she wouldn’t say that Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

However, she’s sought to portray herself as more moderate this time around. Williams has released what she’s calling her “10-point good government plan.” The plan includes term limits for members of Congress, banning individual stock trading by members of Congress, and a requirement that the federal government always have a balanced budget.

Williams said that in the 2024 election she struggled because Goodlander had such a large fundraising advantage. Since that election, Williams has garnered a large social media following after a video clip from a debate went viral, and she’s said she wants to leverage that to increase out-of-state donations to close the gap. This cycle, she’s raised a little over $1 million, according to the Federal Election Commission. In the 2024 election cycle, she raised just over $700,000 in contributions. Goodlander, with her strong Washington connections, has raised over $3.2 million in contributions this cycle, per the FEC.

“We are still (the) underdog,” Williams said. “Like she has four times more money, but we have more resources now than last (cycle) to get my campaign messages out. And because lots of people still don’t know who I am, and they know more about her because she’s incumbent, so we still have a very big uphill battle to fight.”

Williams said she’s less concerned about her primary rival, Orlando, because he doesn’t have as many resources behind him.

“I feel pretty comfortable about the primary,” Williams said. “It’s not as intense as last cycle because I had 12 Republicans in the primary with me, and some had more money and more establishment PAC endorsement. So this time I just have one person who is actively campaigning, but he doesn’t have any resources.”

A pro-labor Republican

In order to face Goodlander in the general election, Williams has to first defeat Orlando, a pro-labor Republican who has partially self-funded his campaign. The polling shows she’s likely to do so. In the UNH poll, 58% of surveyed voters chose Williams compared to 2% who chose Orlando, with 38% undecided. 

Orlando, who owns a roofing company and lives in Hollis, has sought to portray himself as the candidate who can tackle affordability challenges.

“I’m running for office because every single person in this state is feeling it right now when it comes to affordability,” he said in an interview. “Every single one of us.”

Orlando wants to implement small practical fixes that he believes will stem inflation and help Americans’ wallets.

“I’m not going into this going, ‘Hey, I’m going to change the world and wave a magic wand and fix everything,” Orlando said. “No, I realize I’m one of over 400 people, and I have to get half of them to agree with me to do anything. I know it’s going to be small little victories over and over again, but that’s exactly what we need someone to advocate for in New Hampshire.”

Some of his proposals include eliminating patents on certain seeds to allow for competition in the market to bring down food costs; giving tax breaks to municipalities that adopt regulations that promote more homebuilding; and enacting a federal version of a bill proposed in the New Hampshire state Legislature — House Bill 396 — that sought to allow farmers to slaughter animals on their own farms instead of offsite slaughterhouses.

Orlando said he’s more focused on the issues that matter to New Hampshire than his competitor Williams. He specifically cited her vocal opposition to the policies of the Chinese Communist Party.

“She is very big on anti-China,” he said. “That’s her main thing. That’s her platform. That’s who she is. And I don’t disagree with her that China is a threat. China is a problem, and we need to be very careful with China, but I look at this as, China didn’t mess up the cost of our food. China didn’t mess up our immigration. China didn’t mess up our healthcare. China definitely didn’t spend all our money and put us in a deficit and all this debt. We did that to ourselves.”

Orlando also argues that New Hampshire’s congressional delegation didn’t do enough to secure funding for the state in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. He said he would’ve worked harder to negotiate with colleagues and get some New Hampshire specific-funding included in the bill. Similarly, he supported the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but believes New Hampshire delegates should’ve pushed for funding.

“I would have voted for it,” he said of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, “but I also would have got in there and negotiated some more stuff for New Hampshire. Like I love no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, that type of stuff. But I would have gone in there and said, ‘Hey, New Hampshire needs some new roads up north. We need some damn help.’ And guess what? That bill I think passed by one vote in the House. I could have been that one vote and been like, ‘Hey, give me $100 million in road grants for the state of New Hampshire.’ And guess what? They would have done it because they were desperate to get it passed. That type of negotiation is how you get things done.”

Getting to the polls and voting

The polls will open at varying times on Tuesday morning depending on the municipality. Voters can find out where their polling location is and which races will be on their ballot on the Secretary of State’s website at https://app.sos.nh.gov/pollingplacesampleballot. New Hampshire allows same-day voter registration. To register to vote on Election Day, voters will need to provide proof of their identity (driver’s license, government-issued photo ID, or passport), age (also driver’s license, government-issued photo ID, or passport), U.S. citizenship (birth certificate, passport, naturalization papers, or other proof), and domicile (government-issued ID or documentation with an address on it).