Liz Canada 0:11

You're listening to New Hampshire Has Issues, and I am your host, Liz Canada. Every day this week, there's a new mini stode with a candidate running for the first congressional district here in New Hampshire. I have a lot more detail about these conversations in the primary prep episode, in case maybe you missed it or if you need some reminders. Quick overview though. For each of these mini sodes, there are two rules. Rule number one, the candidate gets three minutes to answer each question. And I chose three minutes because that's typically how much time I get when I go to the state house and testify in a public hearing to make my entire case. So the candidates get three minutes. The second rule is that there's no negative talk about other candidates running for this seat. Again, more information in the primary prep episode. New Hampshire has issues, it does not make endorsements. Neither do I. But I do support getting the information you need to make the best decision for yourself so that you also can vote on Tuesday, September 8th in the New Hampshire state primary. In the episode description, I have information about checking your voter registration, finding your polling location, looking at a sample ballot that you will have at the primary, and finding your city or town clerk's information in case you need to contact them. If you would like to support New Hampshire Has Issues Podcast, please visit patreon.com slash NH has issues, and you can become a supporter for as little as $5 a month. Thank you so much for listening. And now on to the episode with Maura Sullivan. All

Welcome to the show, Maura Sullivan

Liz Canada 1:50

right, welcome to New Hampshire Has Issues. I have Maura Sullivan on the podcast today. She is running for the first congressional district of New Hampshire. Maura, thank you for coming on the podcast.

Maura Sullivan 2:02

Well, Liz, it's great to be here. We've been looking forward to this all week. So thanks so much for thanks so much for having us.

Liz Canada 2:08

I'm so glad that you're here. I know that you are busy, you are out there, you're talking to folks. And so thanks for for making time on this, on this little podcast for the listeners.

Maura Sullivan 2:19

Absolutely. We're excited. I really appreciate the opportunity. So thank you.

Liz Canada 2:23

Quick recap of the ground rules of these mini sodes. Uh, you're gonna have a firm three minutes for each question, but I'll probably ask follow-up questions. That is something I tend to do every once in a while. And then the other one, no negative talk about any other candidates. There's enough time anyway. We're gonna snap right through this. It's gonna be great.

Maura Sullivan 2:41

Well, the Marine in me loves these, loves these rules.

Liz Canada 2:43

Okay, love to hear them. All right, so let's just

Best pitch: why should someone vote for you in the primary?

Liz Canada 2:46

jump right in. You're running for Congress, Maura. Yeah. That's something you're doing right now. You're you want to represent the people of the first congressional district. So give me your best pitch. Why should someone vote for you on Tuesday, September 8th at the state primary?

Maura Sullivan 3:01

Well, um, again, it's awesome to be here. And for those listeners that I haven't had the chance to meet yet, I'm Maura Sullivan. I'm a working mom of three kids, five and under. I live on the seacoast with my husband, who is a Navy reserve officer. I'm a really proud Marine Corps Iraq War veteran and was really proud that President Obama appointed me as a senior Pentagon official and assistant secretary at the VA. I'm running for Congress in our first district for two very clear reasons. Number one, like all of us, I love our country. I believe so much in its promise. I risked my life for it. And I've served with the greatest men and women that I have ever known, some of whom gave their lives for it. And I look around right now, and this is not the America that I fought for. Second reason I am running, Liz, is that like all of us, I love our community. I think New Hampshire is the best place in the country to raise kids. And it's why my husband Mark and I chose it close to 10 years ago now to put down roots and have our family. And, you know, we have truly lived the American dream. My husband is the son of immigrants. My story began not unlike most kids in New Hampshire today. I'm not from a wealthy or well-connected family. I was a middle class kid, oldest of four, public school. And when it came time to go to college, I couldn't go to a lot of the schools I was looking at. And I got an ROTC scholarship, which made college possible for me. Oh, cool. Yeah. And then I worked three jobs, including waiting tables to pay the bills. And then I joined the Marines. And well, that was hard. And I struggled. And later, when I went to continue my education, I took out student loans to do that. We worked really hard and I'm proud of that, but we had great opportunities. And what I worry about right now when I talk to folks all throughout our district is that hard work may no longer be enough. And I want every kid in New Hampshire to have the same opportunities that we did. You know, look, there's a lot of candidates in this race. And here's why I would make the case that I am the right person for this moment and to hold this seat in November. Uh, first, I'm a proven fighter. I was in Fallujah in 2005 as a woman and a Marine. And then years later, when I worked for President Obama at the Pentagon, I stood up to four-star generals on the subject of women's reproductive rights. So standing up to Trump or this administration or the leader of our own party and saying I'm not voting with them is not the hardest thing that I have done. Second, we are building the coalition that is necessary to win progressives, moderates, independents, and Republicans. Again, not only to win, but to move forward and govern and start to heal our country. And then third and finally, I'm the candidate who can win. You know, there's studies that show that veterans who are Democrats perform up to six points higher in these purple districts. Look at Mikie Sherrill and look at Abigail Spanberger in New Jersey and Virginia. We are going to have the team, the coalition, and the resources to not only win in this primary, but also win in this general election and hold this seat.

Liz Canada 6:05

So it's clear that your background in the Marines and that work really sort of fuels you that you see it as like a driving force in your in your background to go for the seat. Tell me what you learned there. Tell me what it is that that connects that past experience to, you know, make you the best fit for this job.

Maura Sullivan 6:28

Yeah. Well, it's really, I appreciate the question. It's really, you know, at first it was just a commitment to public service. And I've been committed to public service for most of my adult life. You know, my journey of service started when I joined the Marines, as I just mentioned. And then a few years later, my unit got orders to the Iraq war and my contract was up, and I volunteered to extend and go with them. Um, because that's just what we do as Americans. We run toward the fight. And there was no way in heck that I, you know, my team, if my team was going over there, I wasn't going to be alongside them. And then, you know, I continued my commitment to public service. When I worked for President Obama years later, there was a crisis at the VA, and more than 40 veterans died, believed to be due to long wait times at the VA. And I, like so many people, was outraged. And I went down to Washington to do something about it. And I was really proud that President Obama asked me to serve on the leadership team of the VA, where we worked at the highest levels of our federal government to reform health care, worked with Republicans, worked with Democrats, to reform the largest integrated health care system in our country. And then had the chance to continue my journey of service at the Pentagon, where, you know, I traveled around the world, traveled around the country, met with military leaders and heads of state, spent time in the Middle East. But those that know me well know the work I'm most proud of is the work we did right back in Washington on issues affecting fellow military families like my own, things like parental leave and mental health, making sure child care center hours were what they should be at places like our Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and bases all around our country and things that again impacted military families and reproductive rights, which were in question at the time. And then for close to the last 10 years, I've been serving here in our community. I'm proud that my friend and our congressman, Chris Pappas, appointed me to his Service Academy Board, where we work with young men and women around the district who want to step up and serve. He also appointed me to his Veterans Advisory Committee and where we've worked on veterans policy throughout, you know, throughout our district. I've also been really proud to work with City Year in Manchester, helping to expand national service, but also do that critical work in our elementary schools. And I'm proud of the work that I've done, you know, electing candidates up and down the ticket that share my values in our Democratic Party in our state. And I see this as just an extension of my journey of service. I've uh the commitment to service and the experience to hit the ground running on our my first day and deliver for the people of New Hampshire. You asked what else I learned, and I think, you know, one of there's so many things I learned in the so many things I learned in the right. It's more than we have time for in three minutes, but something that I keep thinking about a lot during this campaign is literally what they tell you probably on day two. And they look you in the eye and they say, Lieutenant, it's not about you. It's about the mission and the people that you serve. And right now in a Washington where literally it's all about them, and it's all about the president and the people that he is enriching. I think we need leaders that are grounded in service that are ready to step up and fight. And that's what I bring.

Liz Canada 9:35

All right. So you talked about day one. If you're elected, you're gonna be ready on day one to take action. So

What is THE issue you want to tackle if you’re elected?

Liz Canada 9:41

this podcast is called New Hampshire Has Issues. So if you're elected to Congress, what is the issue you are most prepared to tackle or the issue you feel is the most important to tackle once you get there?

Maura Sullivan 9:56

Yeah. I mean, here's what I'm hearing from folks, Liz, all around our district for the last 15 months is that they're tired of a Washington that works for the wealthy and well-connected, while granite staters are working harder and harder just to get by. And we need to hold this administration accountable. We need to lower costs, put money back in people's pockets, and we need to root out corruption. And those are the sort of first three areas that I will be focused on. In terms of accountability, I mean, let's start with ICE. Um, you know, ICE agents murdered a city uh murdered someone in Biddeford, Maine, about 40 miles north of where I'm sitting right now, just two weeks ago. And not another dime for that agency if I were in Congress. And I would be holding those agents accountable. Um, they need to be held uh, you know, the senior leadership need to be dragged down for hearings. And any agents that were involved in illegal uh behavior need to be held accountable and prosecuted. Let's next talk about Pete Hegseth. He needs to be held accountable when he is putting our young men and women at risk in these illegal, reckless, unnecessary, and unauthorized wars. And of course, we know who pays the price for these wars. It's 18 and 19-year-old young men and women through all throughout this district who enlist right out of Central High School or Memorial High School or Kennett High School in North Conway. Those are the young men and women who are paying the price if we get involved in another reckless war in the Middle East. And I have unique experience having served in the Middle East, having served in a war zone, to stand up and hold him accountable and ensure that he doesn't, that we can bring our troops home and he doesn't get us involved in another reckless war. You know, next, in terms of lowering cost, the number one cost driver that I hear from folks in our district is far and away is health care. And, you know, let's be really clear in the greatest and richest country in the history of the world, it is just absolutely unacceptable that people in our state would go without access to quality health care. Those are not our American values. Those are not, that's not the values that I fought for and risked my life for. And so my my policy is Medicare for all who want it, which would lower the out-of-pocket costs for health care as well as lower the cost for prescription drugs. We also, of course, need to shore up the ACA and restore Trump's cuts to Medicaid. And look, I'm the only candidate in this race that has experience reforming health care at the highest levels of our federal government. When I was appointed by President Obama to serve as assistant secretary of the VA, reforming the largest integrated health care system in our country. Healthcare reform is hard. It's really hard. And I'm going to leverage that experience on day one and the lessons I learned in the Obama administration to work on the critical health care reforms for us now and get Medicare for all who want it passed. That's the first piece of legislation I will introduce. And then finally, we need to root out corruption. Congress needs to pass my anti-corruption platform. It was the first platform I released in my campaign, calls for banning members of Congress from trading stocks, overturning Citizens United, and banning corporate PAC money and more.

Liz Canada 13:01

I want to go back to the health care piece. Because I I hear the same thing. Healthcare costs are up for so many people. I've had a few episodes about it, about Medicaid, about insurance, all sorts of things related to health care. You mentioned Medicare for all who want it. How are you going to make that happen? It feels like all these folks, well-intentioned people, get elected. But we're still waiting for that to happen. So what's different this time? How are you going to do it?

Maura Sullivan 13:32

Well, I'll tell you. I the first thing I'm going to do when I get to Washington is join a bipartisan caucus of veterans. It's called the Four Country Caucus. And in order to be admitted, you not only have to be a veteran, but you also have to promise to co-sponsor a piece of legislation with a member of the opposite party. And they actually invited me down for an event last fall. And there was a formal event with two Republican members and two Democratic members. And there was a good conversation about national security and small businesses and the role of the future of Social Security. But the real conversation began afterward when everyone decamped across the street to the Dubliner and grabbed a pint. And it was a bunch of Republican members and Democratic members of Congress. They were kind enough to let me tag along. And, you know, for the first half hour, we just talked about our service. When were you in Iraq? When were you in Afghanistan? You know, where did you serve? And then about a half hour in and a half a pint in, that's when that's well, what do you hear from seniors in your district? Well, what are you hearing from small businesses? Well, what are you hearing from working families about childcare costs, about health care costs? And I gotta tell you, what gives me some hope in these really polarized times, Liz, is that it was a lot of the same stuff from red states, purple states, and blue states. And so is this caucus going to solve everything? Well, of course not. That that is not a realistic solution. But I do think it is a place to start, right? Because those bonds of service cross party lines. And what I saw that night in those conversations with other veterans was that these issues that so many seniors and small businesses and working families are struggling with, they're not Republican issues or Democratic issues. They're they're American issues. And there is not one member of that caucus that I cannot sit down with day one from starting from a really significant place of mutual respect as well as trust to say we both love this country, we fought for this country, and how are we gonna fix this country? And let's work on that together. And that is how that's how I'm gonna start because we have to be able to work across the aisle to get a marquee piece of legislation like Medicare for all who want it passed. We will not have the votes in just one party. And so that is a unique perspective and experience set that I bring to this race, to New Hampshire, and to this district. Um, because again, those bonds of service cross party lines. And we're already seeing that right here in, you know, right here in in in in New Hampshire. And we've had more than 50 veterans just recently endorse me. And the union leader did a big article about it, and I was really honored to have their support. And um, you know, a a a good number of those veterans were Republicans. And, you know, that when they came up to me at, you know, the Hampton American Legion or at a House Party, you know, recently in in Dover, you know, they said, I probably don't agree with you on everything, but I know you're always going to put your the country first and put New Hampshire first. And so you have my vote.

Liz Canada 16:36

You've

What do you wish people knew about you as a person?

Liz Canada 16:37

shared a lot of things about yourself already. And I have promised a non-political question. What do you wish people knew about you as a human being that doesn't fit in a political ad or a mailer? Like what would surprise someone to know about you? Like what makes you a person? Even though all these other answers make you a person, of course, but what's what's unique that people might not know?

Maura Sullivan 17:01

Yeah, you know, I think just like I'm like a very normal mom who lives on the seacoast. I, you know, my my unglamorous day starts as, you know, unglamorously as most other moms who live on the seacoast. I'm changing diapers. I am you know sometimes a lot of diapers. Um, just I, you know, just this morning, I I my my two-year-old uh was I was trying to give him a diaper change. And my four-year-old wanted me to braid her hair at the same time. And my five-year-old wanted me to play soccer with him. And so I'm like, ah, I'm feeling like I pulled in all three of these directions, and you want to be, you feel like you're letting someone down, but you're, you're just you're just a mom and you're balancing all of it and triangulating it. And then, you know, we go to get in the car for soccer last Saturday. And of course, uh, over over at Dondero, and of course, you know, I was like, all right, I've got the stuff laid out, we're gonna get there on time today. And then of course, my five-year-old is missing his left shoe. Yeah. So, you know, you're like, man, I had the, I had the, you know, I had the I had the perfect plan and uh to get us, you know, get us out the door and get there on time. And of course, you know, it didn't. Um, you know, when I uh I think probably like a lot of parents when I needed like kind of de-stress from, you know, like for other people, it's work. For me, it's the campaign. I I love just like reading stories to my kids. Like that just kind of brings everything, you know, back in perspective. And um when I need a break from my kids, um, I will you'll find me at Home Goods in Portsmouth. Okay. Right. It is like it is amazing what like six dollars on a set of new dish towels can like can really like turn your week around. Yeah.

Liz Canada 18:42

That's right.

Maura Sullivan 18:43

So that's what you'll find me if if I if I need a break from my kids is like I'll just, you know, I just like gotta get out to Home Goods and opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Uh and and you know, you can do it for uh basically almost you know, less than a cost of of a hamburger. Um so yeah, I don't know if that I don't know if that gives you any color. Oh no, absolutely, absolutely my day-to-day life in uh in a nutshell. Hands and hearts are full, is what my husband says. Because we got three kids, five and under, and um feel incredibly blessed, but we're definitely in it. Um and which is also a big thing that drives me to do this because it's their future and and their generation's future, and they deserve better than what we have, you know, right now.

Liz Canada 19:23

Maura, thank you for coming on this podcast. Quick and snappy, like

NH Primary Reminders

Liz Canada 19:28

I promised. I want to remind listeners that the New Hampshire State primary is Tuesday, September 8th. Links are in the show notes, so you can check your voter registration. You can check what your polling location is, all of that is available. And yes, we want everyone to vote in November, but first, we've got the state primary, and so we want to make sure that folks get out for that too. Maura, thank you again so much for coming on New Hampshire has Issues.

Maura Sullivan 19:53

Well, Liz, thank you so much for for your work and doing this incredibly important podcast and getting the word out to voters, citizens, granite staters. So appreciate your work for our democracy, and thanks everybody for tuning in. It's great to be here.

Liz Canada 20:06

Happy to do it, and Maura, good luck out there.

Maura Sullivan 20:09

Thank you, thank you, thank you.