A House race in New Hampshire is testing a key Biden economic message

President Joe Biden struggled to sell his brand of bashing “corporate greed” and industry consolidation to average voters.

In New Hampshire, one Democrat is betting she’s a better messenger.

Maggie Goodlander embraced her quintessentially D.C. resume when she launched her campaign for a House seat in May — and has been trying to tailor it to local sensibilities ever since: Her first ad highlighted her efforts to “take on corporate monopolies” while working at the Justice Department. The opening salvo splashed headlines about four cases she took part in that scrutinized Google, the food industry, landlord collusion and one of the nation’s largest health care operators.

The fight against unchecked corporate growth has been a signature priority for Biden and progressive Democrats. Biden’s fight against Google, Amazon, Apple and other giants has moved stock prices, garnered headlines and appealed to a wide range of populists , including Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance . What's less clear is whether his aims have political traction with voters — something Goodlander's campaign offers a rare, real-life test for the anti-corporate message.

Abortion, access to health care and working on former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment also factor heavily in Goodlander’s campaign for a district that borders Massachusetts and Quebec. But her supporters say her fight-for-the-underdog message could be persuasive in a Sept. 10 primary where Goodlander and her opponent are exchanging broadsides about corporate connections and loyalties to the fiercely independent state.

“New Hampshire is kind of an ornery place and people kind of like the little guy against the big guy,” said Steve Taylor, a Democrat, farmer and former New Hampshire agriculture commissioner, who is backing Goodlander. “People have seen local businesses snapped up, grocers, car dealers, and that kind of dynamic worries people. Veterinarians, funeral homes, everyone has a story to tell.”

Goodlander is hoping her role in that story will help propel her into office and her campaign — one that’s being watched closely in D.C.’s legal circles.

“When I was at DOJ, the three big industries I looked at were health care, housing and agriculture. So pretty much everywhere I go, every day, multiple times a day, in many different ways, these issues come up,” Goodlander said in an interview over Zoom. “And I think the ideas behind the antitrust laws are as old as America. It's about checking power. And so I think the message has really resonated.”

The same D.C. chops she’s hoping will win the day have also become the biggest magnet for criticism from her opponent, Colin Van Ostern, who has been endorsed by — and used to work for — Rep. Ann McLane Kuster , the six-term Democratic lawmaker who announced her retirement early this year.

After graduating from Yale, Goodlander hit several D.C. career milestones in quick succession: She worked for the late Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), finished law school (Yale Law), clerked for Merrick Garland when he was a judge and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and served on the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment. That doesn’t even include her three years at the Justice Department (under Garland) or that she’s married to Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, who doesn’t participate in his wife’s campaign.

Goodlander has outraised and outspent Van Ostern, bringing in $2.4 million with about $791,000 in the bank as of Aug. 21, according to federal campaign finance reports. Van Ostern has raised $1.3 million and has about $568,000 on hand.

“This race is about who has been in these fights for New Hampshire and who has earned the trust of local communities to deliver,” Van Ostern said in a statement. He once served on the state’s executive council and narrowly lost the governor’s race in 2016. Prior to his current campaign, he headed up the venture capital firm Alumni Ventures Group.

Taylor, the former agriculture commissioner, said the outsider label is not insurmountable. “Sixty to 70 percent of the people here are from somewhere else. It’s kind of a bullshit nativist take,” he said.

Recent polls show Goodlander with a small but narrowing lead. A University of New Hampshire Granite State Poll from late August showed Goodlander up 34 percent to 28 percent, with 38 percent undecided and a 4.9 percent margin of error. A New Hampshire Institute of Politics poll from mid-August had Goodlander up by 10 percent.

Over the weekend, Van Ostern suffered a setback when former Democratic Gov. John Lynch withdrew his endorsement for Van Ostern and backed Goodlander. Van Ostern’s campaign is “one of the nastiest I’ve seen in my 50 years of being involved in elections here in New Hampshire. I’m appalled by it,” he said.

Van Ostern, who declined an interview request, did not provide a comment about Lynch’s reversal.

“She’s started off with a little trouble,” Taylor said of Goodlander, noting how she hadn’t voted in the district until recently, and owned a house in New Hampshire’s other congressional district before renting an apartment in the 2nd District.

But Goodlander has deep roots in New Hampshire. She was born and raised in Nashua, near the Massachusetts border, and her mother, Betty Tamposi, was a Republican state politician who unsuccessfully ran for the seat Goodlander is now vying for. Her grandfather, Samuel Tamposi, was a prominent real estate developer in the state and limited partner in the Boston Red Sox.

“I’m a fourth-generation New Hampshire girl, and the only candidate born and raised in the 2nd district. From my living room I can see the shoe factory where my grandfather worked, and the hospital where I was born on Election Day,” Goodlander said in an interview. “I've always looked for ways to serve our state and country, and that’s taken me out of New Hampshire for most of my adult life.”

Goodlander’s supporters point to her stint working as a foreign policy adviser to McCain to demonstrate her willingness to cross party lines. During part of her time at DOJ, she was an aide to Garland before spending 18 months at the agency’s antitrust division shortly before launching her campaign.

But Goodlander’s anti-corporate power rhetoric is not enough, said Carlos Cardona, a Democratic political power broker based in a rural, Trumpian part of the state’s other congressional district.

“Here in New Hampshire people have a libertarian mindset, and it plays well with people, but I don’t think it's going to be the winning issue,” said Cardona, who decided last week to endorse Van Ostern.

“Colin is more immersed in local issues. The guy lives and breathes local policy,” Cardona said. “People don’t like out-of-state money. She was raised here but it's coming across that her friends are not here.”

Goodlander said she is proud to have endorsements of prominent Granite Staters, including Lynch and Gary Hirshberg, the chair of the organic dairy giant Stonyfield Farm, who also recently switched his endorsement from Van Ostern.

Goodlander is not the only congressional candidate with an anti-monopoly message. Rebecca Cooke, the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District and another political novice, is highlighting the destruction of family farms in her state at the hands of large agriculture companies.

“These issues are on people’s minds. People don’t have monopoly at the tip of their mouths, but they can recognize corporate greed,” said Basel Musharbash, an anti-monopoly lawyer in Paris, Texas. “Campaigns are figuring out how to capture what people are feeling, find the language and channel what they are seeing in the marketplace into change.”

Van Ostern also recognizes this, his campaign manager, Jordan Burns, said in a statement. He “is committed to building fair, competitive and robust markets and standing up for working families,” Burns said.

Van Ostern is also attacking Goodlander’s credibility, saying her “anti-corporate rhetoric falls flat when voters learn that her campaign is being bankrolled by Jeff Bezos , Mike Bloomberg and out-of-state dark money super PACs,” according to Burns.

However, the American Prospect, the progressive publication that reported on the Bezos connection, suggested the Amazon founder may have “unwittingly” funded a candidate promising to break up big tech companies because of a “convoluted” campaign finance system.

Goodlander declined to comment on the donations, citing campaign finance laws prohibiting coordination with super PACs.

“My record is public, and I'm proud of it. I am so proud to help put antitrust at the center of the Biden-Harris administration’s economic policy and vision,” she said.

She also pointed out that Van Ostern worked at Alumni Ventures Group when it paid $5.4 million in refunds and penalties in a case where it was accused of making misleading statements about fees. Van Ostern’s campaign responded that he was not involved in the conduct at issue. Under his watch, the firm also criticized a since-failed regulatory effort to increase fee and performance transparency.

“That is not consistent with fighting corporate power,” Goodlander said.

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.