By ZACH LAIRD, InDepthNH.org
The WMUR Democratic primary debate between incumbent U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), and challenger State Rep. Paige Beauchemin, D-Nashua on Thursday night covered their positions on key issues such as immigration, housing, and the looming possibility of data centers.
The two are running for New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District. Before being elected to represent New Hampshire’s Second District in Congress in November 2024, Goodlander served as a senior advisor at the White House, though she began her career working as a foreign policy advisor to U.S. Senator John McCain in the United States Senate per her website.
Goodlander’s challenger, Beauchemin, has worked to help expand people’s access to healthcare (and) New Hampshire’s paid family and medical leave program. She also works on measures that promote transparency, civil liberties, and human rights per her campaign website.
Commentators began by asking what could be done to build homes that Granite Staters can actually afford.
Goodlander said Congress passed the most significant piece of housing legislation in a generation, citing the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. She said she was proud to work on several critical areas of the bill, which focused on cutting red tape to allow building more homes for working-class families. She also said the bill was helpful in cutting down abusive practices by big corporations that have jacked up housing costs for everybody.
Beauchemin responded that when she thinks about the housing crisis, she looks at it with a multi-pronged approach.
“First of all, we need to stop the problem in its tracks, which means we need to get private equity out of housing. Private equity is the core of everything that is wrong with housing right now, and it is the reason that there’s a shortage of housing, especially for first-time home buyers,” Beauchemin said.
She continued that another problem is corporations continuing to buy houses and land around the state. She added how often it’s not even affordable to build homes right now. Beauchemin said there has to be a plan, including things like subsidies as well as using existing infrastructure more creatively.
Should Congress do anything to help the average struggling renter? Commentator Steve Bottari noted the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in New Hampshire is up to $2,000.
Beauchemin said more regulations need to be put in place for renters’ protections, because “right now, people can be living in very unsafe, very unhealthy conditions, and they can’t do anything about it, because they know if they say something, they can be evicted.”
Goodlander emphasized that more homes need to be built which would “help us bring down the costs for renters and home-buyers,” and recalled how her time working in the Justice Department she focused on how “big corporate monopolies are using algorithms and something called surveillance pricing to fix the price of rent more effectively than ever before.”
She said she aims to crack down on “precisely this kind of abusive corporate practice that is jacking up rent for hardworking people all across this state.”
The next question was centered around whether the candidates would support the development of any artificial intelligence data center in CD 2.
Goodlander said some communities around the country are seeing more than 200% increases in their energy prices as a direct result of data centers coming into their towns or cities. She said she believes deeply that people and communities “have got to have the ultimate say in whether a data center comes into their community.”
She said there has to be transparency, accountability, and the corporations that are responsible for setting up the data centers pay the price rather than taxpayers.
Beauchemin explained she looks at A.I. and data centers from a nuanced perspective, noting that “the toothpaste is out of the tube. We know technology is happening,” but said she supports stopping the construction of any data centers until legislation can be introduced to regulate the issue accordingly.
“Those kinds of regulations need to ensure that environmental impact studies initially and ongoing, they need to ensure that utility costs are paid for by the companies and not from the other folks, and we also need to make sure that the local folks have their own local control,” Beauchemin said.
Bottari turned the conversation toward immigration and referenced the Laken Riley Act that mandates the detention of illegal immigrants who commit certain crimes. He said a majority of voters in 2024 favored a tougher stance on immigration, and asked why Democrats should go back to policies “that helped them lose the last election.”
Beauchemin argued that it was absolutely not the reason why Democrats lost the election and that there are a lot of other reasons for the defeat. She said the reality is Laken Riley Act is one of the worst pieces of legislation that has come out of the current administration.
“Unfortunately, my opponent is one of only 46 Democrats who voted against party lines for that act. That act had many warnings about it; the ACLU put out warnings about it. They did know that what’s happening right now was going to happen, those are the facts,” she said.
Goodlander responded that we are a nation of immigrants, and that we’re also a nation of laws. She said it’s her approach that if you are in this country unlawfully and commit a crime, then there should be immigration consequences. She said that principle led to her vote on the Laken Riley Act and that she stands by her vote.
She said what we’re seeing happen in America today with immigration has nothing to do with any law on the books, but that we’re seeing a President who is completely lawless, undermines due process. She added that Trump has given blank check after blank check to ICE, and has created a gestapo-like force that defies every norm in law enforcement in this country.
Commentators pointed out how in a previous debate Goodlander was called out for participating in a social media video calling on troops to refuse illegal orders. Having served 11 years in the United States Navy Reserve, Goodlander said she learned the bedrock principle that “you do not blindly follow orders, you follow the law,” and that she stands by that principle.