Mar. 28—CONCORD — Former Executive Councilor and 2016 Democratic nominee for governor Colin Van Ostern of Concord became the first candidate to announce that he will seek the 2nd Congressional District seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster.
Kuster, D-N.H., who is in her sixth term, said Wednesday she would not seek reelection.
Van Ostern, 45, said that if elected, he would take a bipartisan, can-do spirit to Washington.
“It’s no secret our democracy has been deeply damaged in recent years,” Van Ostern said. “We’re all exhausted by fringe extremists trying to tear us apart while powerful interests rig the system for themselves, but we can fix this.
“It starts with putting people first for a change.”
Van Ostern, a native of Carlsbad, California, came to New Hampshire in 2001. He worked for Stonyfield Farm Yogurt and ran a political consulting firm before winning the first of his two terms on the Executive Council in 2012.
When then-Gov. Maggie Hassan decided to run for U.S. Senate 2016, Councilors Van Ostern and Chris Sununu of Newfields sought their parties’ nominations.
Van Ostern easily won the Democratic primary, while Sununu edged conservative Frank Edelblut of Wilton, who later became Sununu’s education commissioner.
Sununu narrowly won the general election by 2%, though Van Ostern received a majority of the votes in the 2nd District.
.
“We can, and must, do better,” Van Ostern said. “That takes winning, and this is an open seat in a swing district that is once again going to be hotly contested by both parties.”
Since 2018, Van Ostern has worked as a vice president at Southern New Hampshire University, where he helped launch its nationally recognized online program College to America. He later was president and chief operating officer of Alumni Ventures, a Manchester-based venture capital firm.
In December 2018, he narrowly lost a bid to unseat then-Secretary of State Bill Gardner.
This wasn’t the plan
In an interview Thursday, Van Ostern said that serving in Congress wasn’t part of his career plan, but Kuster’s decision convinced him the time was right to launch this campaign.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t convinced that Congress is broken and it’s time to send people down there who are going to fight both the extremists and the powerful interests to get things done for working families,” Van Ostern said.
Van Ostern said the top issue facing voters is increasing costs. He pledged to support legislation to lower costs for housing, child care and health care, and post-high school education.
“On the council I helped make Medicaid expansion a reality, which led to dramatically lower health care costs for working families without a sales or income tax,” Van Ostern said. “Those are the solutions we should be working on in Washington.”
Van Ostern said he would embrace two of Kuster’s priorities — protection of women’s reproductive rights and improved delivery of services to veterans.
Van Ostern said he will seek the endorsement of Kuster and other elected officials across the district, which spans the entire western half of New Hampshire.
“I can’t promise I will agree with you on every issue, but I will always keep an open mind,” Van Ostern wrote in an open letter to supporters. “I will always look for common ground and no one will work harder.”
Van Ostern said he would support a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress and “common sense” gun control, to include closing the criminal background checks loophole and restricting public ownership of what he called “weapons of war” on the nation’s streets.
Signup bonus from
