Maggie Goodlander, a former Justice Department official who helped launch the department’s environmental justice office, won a Democratic House primary Tuesday.
She beat former New Hampshire Executive Council member Colin Van Ostern in a hard-fought battle that frequently became personal.
Goodlander, an antitrust attorney, was a political appointee at DOJ from 2021 to 2024 and was an adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland from 2021 to 2022. She is the wife of national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
In her role at DOJ, she helped the department start its Office of Environmental Justice, a key part of President Joe Biden’s agenda to confront disparate impacts from pollution and climate change. Goodlander later became deputy assistant attorney general for DOJ’s antitrust division.
