The Maggie Goodlander and Lily Tang Williams match-up is a familiar one in Congressional District 2. The candidates were in this same position in 2024 — only Goodlander now has two years of congressional experience under her belt, and Williams is as determined as ever.
Goodlander spent 11 years in the U.S. Navy Reserves and brings with her an extensive resume in government. During her two years in Congress, Goodlander has carved out a place as a pro-democracy fighter criticizing Trump.
Williams draws her American dream values and freedom advocacy from her upbringing under Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution movement in China. She chaired the Libertarian Party in Colorado in 2015 and has run unsuccessfully for several offices since 2014.
The two have traded TV spots and public appearances across the state in their campaign for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Close to home, they participated in a forum on Oct. 7 at the University of New Hampshire Law School in Concord.
The forum, moderated by journalist Kevin Sullivan, opened up with Goodlander and her stance on the Democratic Party. She said she doesn’t act based upon party lines and works with whomever she can to get work done on issues such as the affordability and healthcare crises.
Goodlander signed onto a “Promise to America” pledge that ultimately pushed back on the ideas of the far-right and far-left, at a time when progressive Democratic candidates are making headwinds around the United States. In an interview with the Monitor, she said she sees too much “grandstanding” in national politics and tries to focus herself on local issues.
“My north star is what are the needs and the opportunities for New Hampshire,” she said. “I’ve tried to work in the way that I’ve seen the best people in our state work, which is to find common ground, find partners who actually want to do the work … and get things done wherever.”
In her 2024 campaign, Williams, in part, campaigned on gun rights, border control and dismantling the Department of Education while being a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump. Those beliefs are still strong priorities for her, though she’s much more zoned in on affordability, Congressional term limits and wasteful spending.
When asked in a Monitor interview if she still aligns herself with the Trump administration’s policies, she said she did endorse his America First priorities but has never met him personally. She’s more focused on connecting with the people in her district and representing their thoughts — and she commonly accuses Goodlander of not showing up for her communities.
“I think in politics, there’s lots of complications, lots of special interests, big money involved, and sometimes I feel like actually I’m not in the club,” Williams said. “That’s why people need to know who do they trust to represent you — an insider or outsider?”
In the UNH Law forum, Sullivan asked both candidates about the Iran war and if it was a mistake for the U.S. to be involved. Both referred back to how the conflict is hurting working Americans’ wallets every day. Williams in particular said the U.S. needs to focus on its domestic agenda and do everything it can to not contribute to the climbing $40 trillion national debt.
Goodlander spoke on how the war can end with partnership among U.S. allies around the world and by making a commitment to bring people to the table to negotiate a solution.
“That is how we get out of this, and unfortunately, [Trump] has his top deputies, a vice president, a secretary of state — who also doubles as the national security adviser — who don’t want to touch this with a 10-foot pole,” she said at the forum. “To end a war, you need serious people who can seriously rally the world behind our cause.”
Another issue both candidates faced in the forum concerned energy costs and production. New England faces some of the highest energy costs in the U.S. and can be even more challenging during peaks in the summer and winter.
Williams said she was open to all energy infrastructure options, but nuclear energy has particularly piqued her interest. She said in the forum that she likes it as a clean alternative to oil burning and the promise of small modular reactors — and she said that a lot more people are coming around to the idea.
“If we have SMR [and] speed up the approval process and make sure they’re safe, we could put next to Seabrook … stack them up, and hopefully we can rely on that to supply to all the Granite Staters,” Williams said in the forum.
Goodlander said in a Monitor interview that she wasn’t opposed to deploying nuclear, but would like to go for the most reliable and most affordable options right now.
Notably missing in these candidate debates and forums is the race’s independent candidate Robbie Mahrou, an entrepreneur based in Walpole.
In an interview, Mahrou said he chose to run for office because he saw the trajectory of the U.S. and the Granite State as “not sustainable.” He said he wants to propel the conversations that aren’t being brought to light.
“I think we are treading water at best, and we’re on the verge of something pretty nasty,” he said. “You can only spend so much time screaming at the sky before as a citizen and somebody who loves America is just like ‘no, this is enough.'”
Running as an independent came down to recognizing that neither party upheld the values he believed would push the country forward. He said that both parties have been “dismantling liberty in this country for decades.” Mahrou received the necessary 1,500 signatures to appear on the November ballot through a process he said was rewarding.
Some of his major platforms include bolstering housing and local jobs, achieving food independence, supporting family farms and ending forever wars. On affordability, he said tackling healthcare giants and building out energy infrastructure like Seabrook are ways to address the crisis.
“Me doing this has a lot more to do with our democracy and in honoring the Constitution and the founding fathers than I think anything else,” he said.
The midterm election is on Nov. 3, 2026.
