New England College hosted a debate Wednesday featuring Democrats running in the 2nd Congressional District. Maggie Goodlander and Colin Van Ostern shared their positions on gun control, voting rights, and housing affordability.
Just hours after a school shooting in Georgia where two students and two teachers were killed, candidates were asked about their view on stricter gun laws.
Van Ostern explained that gun violence is a threat to the younger generation. He supports universal background checks and said red flag laws need to be put into place for the protection of United States citizens.
“We need universal background checks, red flag laws and other basic gun violence prevention laws,” Van Ostern said. “Let me be clear, gun violence is the number one cause of death of our young people and our teenagers in the United States.”
Goodlander said the gun industry needs to take responsibility. She wants Congress to pass a bipartisan gun safety legislation, and said there should be more funding for mental health programs to get to the root of the problem.
“We’ve got to invest in some of the root causes of gun violence in this country, and that goes directly to our mental health crisis,” Goodlander said. “It’s time for Congress to step up and pass a bipartisan gun safety legislation.”
On voting rights, Goodlander said the country needs to do a better job protecting the right to vote and said it should be much easier for Americans to cast a ballot.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to protect the right, and I believe this deeply that the right to vote is the right from which all of our rights flow,” said Goodlander. “I think it should be much easier to vote in this country, and Congress can do a lot to make that happen.”
Van Ostern does not support federal election control and said he disagrees with steps that have been made in New Hampshire that make voting harder.
“We have done things like make it harder for college students who live here to vote here or make it harder for people to register to vote here,” Van Ostern said.
When asked about housing issues, Goodlander said the housing crisis is a huge issue in New Hampshire when it comes to affordability. She said 60,000 homes must be built in the state by the year 2030. She also added that a huge problem is private equity firms buying houses.
“The cost of buying a home is up 82% in the last six years,” Goodlander said. “We’re seeing this practice all across America, private equity firms buying up single family homes and jacking up the cost of buying a home in this state and across the country.”
Van Ostern called the housing crisis is the number one issue he’s been hearing from voters across New Hampshire. He wants tax cuts for the wealthy to be repealed and said that tax revenue should support tax credits for buyers, help pay down deficits, and push interest rates down.
“We also need to repeal the Trump tax cuts for the very wealthy, very big corporations and use that money for a few things,” Van Ostern said. “We also need to advocate for using some of those dollars for getting into our towns for water and sewer so new home construction cost is less.”
The state primary election will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
