A Well-Connected Veteran’s Congressional Campaign Is Fueled by Out-of-State Donors

In her race for a New Hampshire congressional seat, a well-connected military veteran with an expansive Washington resume is being funded by out-of-state donors and boosted by a super PAC with links to billionaires Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg.

Maggie Goodlander raised over $1.5 million in the first two months of her campaign, almost all of which came from individual donors. Eighty-eight percent of the individual contributions came from outside New Hampshire, according to The Intercept’s analysis of campaign finance reports. Almost all of the outside spending in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, meanwhile, has come from the Principled Veterans Fund, a spinoff of a PAC that Bezos poured millions into at its inception in 2018 and that his parents and Bloomberg more recently funded. The veterans-focused super PAC has spent upward of $150,000 on pro-Goodlander ads.

Goodlander is running in an open Democratic primary against New Hampshire politico Colin Van Ostern, who has been endorsed by the departing Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster. Van Ostern’s campaign brought in $719,000 in the most recent fundraising quarter, with 63 percent of individual contributions coming from inside the state. The election is on September 10.

Goodlander’s individual donors include employees of companies like Meta, Palantir, Blackstone, and various corporate law firms; Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet; Biden adviser Gene Sperling; and White House staffers. Her campaign has also received contributions from various PACs, including those of New York Rep. Dan Goldman, Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen, and Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Goodlander’s in-state contribution numbers are “certainly on the very low end of the spectrum,” said Robert Maguire, research director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.

It’s not unprecedented for candidates to receive large levels of out-of-state cash, Maguire noted, but the median amount of such donations for House incumbents running for reelection is about 42 percent. Goodlander’s rate is more than double that, despite being a first-time candidate.

Goodlander’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

A graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, Goodlander served 11 years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. She advised former Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. She clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and then-Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. She served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump and served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Biden administration, in the antitrust division.

Her family is also politically connected. Both her grandfather and her mother were involved in Republican politics, and she is married to national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Their 2015 wedding was officiated by Hillary Clinton, whose presidential campaign Sullivan advised.

Goodlander’s experience and connections have been a boon to her campaign, which she launched in May. Her campaign netted $1.56 million in the fundraising quarter that ran from April 1 to June 30, an average of $801 per donation. (The average donor to Van Ostern’s campaign during that same time period gave $302.) Only about 12 percent of Goodlander’s donations — $185,305 — came from within the state.

Her campaign also received $10,000 from the With Honor PAC. 

With Honor, according to its website, “works alongside the bipartisan For Country Caucus, a group of 30 veterans serving in the United States House of Representatives who have committed to the With Honor pledge to serve with integrity, civility, and the courage to work across party lines.” (This civility-driven caucus includes the likes of Florida Republican Rep. Brian Mast, who has compared Palestinian civilians to Nazis and said more infrastructure in Gaza “needs to be destroyed.”)

With Honor’s affiliated super PAC, the With Honor Fund, received some $12 million from Bezos’s parents since 2017. Bezos himself gave $10 million to the super PAC in 2018. Bloomberg contributed a combined $750,000 in 2018 and 2020.

Before shutting down in 2023, the fund transferred nearly $5.9 million to With Honor Fund II, which in turn transferred $5.83 million to two separate super PACs: the Principled Veterans Fund and the Elect Principled Veterans Fund. All three groups share the same treasurer, who did not respond to an inquiry from The Intercept. The Principled Veterans Fund’s only other major donor was Bloomberg, who gave another $750,000 in 2022. 

That super PAC has spent $154,000 in support of Goodlander, while Elect Principled Veterans has spent thousands to support members largely part of the For Country Caucus.

Several years ago, the For Country Caucus attempted to distance itself from With Honor. That concern seems to have subsided. Today, the PAC’s website boasts of its collaboration with the caucus.

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