“Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), a Harvard-educated Marine veteran who struggled to gain traction in a crowded Democratic presidential field, announced Friday that he would leave the campaign, making him the third candidate to depart the race this week,” the Washington Post reports.
Moulton said that he would instead seek reelection.
Boston Globe: “The North Shore congressman has been crisscrossing the early presidential-primary states like any of the viable candidates. Just last week, he hit Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, before heading to Weare, Exeter, and Hillsborough in New Hampshire. He ate corn dogs and ice cream.”
“And America ignored him — as it has, resolutely, since he announced his candidacy in April. In poll after poll after poll, Moulton has registered at zero percent. Yes, zero. The same number your dog or cat would poll. Yet the Harvard-educated US Marine Corps veteran soldiers on. He has not approached any of the benchmarks for getting onto the overcrowded Democratic debate stage.”
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) “is shedding staff from his long shot presidential campaign… Moulton recently informed his staff that he planned on laying off at least half his team,” the Washington Post reports.
“Of course he’s a liar. I think everybody knows he’s a liar. Some people are willing to forgive it. But we should not have to have that question. We should never have to question whether the commander in chief is telling the truth.”
— Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), quoted by the Associated Press, while calling for impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) was spotted in his hometown of Marblehead, Massachusetts, taping a presidential announcement that’s expected within a week, Axios reports.
Moulton’s key issues will be foreign policy, national security and defense.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) told BuzzFeed News that he is thinking about running for president.
Said Moulton: “I’m not definitely running, but I’m going to take a very hard look at it. A very serious look at it. Because I believe it’s time for a new generation of leadership, and we gotta send Donald Trump packing.”
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) will travel to New Hampshire in two weeks, the Boston Globe reports.
“The trip to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state will likely restart buzz that he is exploring a run for president.”
Boston Globe: “Moulton, who’s emerged as the unofficial leader of the group trying to dislodge Pelosi, may find himself in a jam, and perhaps a pariah in the party caucus, if she is able to quell the dissent in her ranks as her allies confidently predict. The question for him isn’t just how defeat will play inside the House but also what it will look like outside the Beltway, where his larger ambitions may well lie.”
“Much will depend on the tone he sets when this contretemps is done; will he beat a retreat or carry on as a critic? Certainly, the Marine veteran has been aggressive to this point, deploying every weapon in his arsenal against the longtime Democratic leader, prompting blowback from liberal pundits and some of his own constituents. He recruited House candidates who largely repudiated Pelosi on the trail, gathered signatures on a letter opposing her, and went on a media blitz warning of the dangers to Democrats if she’s reelected.”
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) signaled that he is seeking to hold negotiations with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “about changes to her leadership team, a development that makes her ascendancy to the speakership likelier as her opponents continue to struggle to recruit a challenger,” the Washington Post reports.
“Pelosi, however, has given no indication that she is open to talks with Moulton about a deal for the support of moderate critics, or that she would ever waver in her support for her longtime deputies, Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and James Clyburn (D-SC), who are in line to hold the No. 2 and No. 3 posts in the House next year.”
Lowell Sun: “Sixteen representatives and representatives-elect, led in their opposition by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, signed a letter Monday pledging not to support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for another term as speaker of the House.”
“Since then, the landscape has changed. One of the letter’s signers publicly changed his mind two days later. U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, who seemed for a time the most likely Democrat to challenge for the gavel, announced she would vote for Pelosi, leaving those calling for new leadership with no figurehead. And on Monday, Moulton faced sharp criticism from pro-Pelosi protesters in his own district.”
“As a result, experts and commentators are wondering: where, exactly, is Moulton going with this?”
“The push by Rep. Seth Moulton against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s bid to become speaker took center stage on Monday night at a town hall in his district, where constituents shouted and interrupted Moulton and one another in a lively debate over the future of the chamber,” Politico reports.
“The hourlong question-and-answer session rarely strayed from the speakership question.”
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), “one of the leaders of a small Democratic contingent opposing Nancy Pelosi’s bid for speaker, said he is ‘100 percent confident’ the group has enough commitments to block the California Democrat from being elected speaker on the floor,” Roll Call reports.
“The anti-Pelosi group has been gathering signatures from new and returning members on a letter that calls for new Democratic leadership. It also notes that the signatories will not back Pelosi during the January floor vote for speaker.”
“People see me aggressively tackling challenges and always assume it must be some part of a bigger plan. And therefore question, well what’s his plan? What’s he trying to do? How about, I’m just doing the right thing, right now? It doesn’t have to be part of a larger plan.”
— Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), quoted by BuzzFeed News on being seen as a potential presidential contender in 2020.
Seth Stevenson: “I can’t know Seth Moulton’s heart. But there’s no doubt that grand ambition stirs within. It seems unlikely he’d attempt to run against Donald Trump next cycle—too soon, too young—and yet he’s snuck onto all the media short lists anyway. Politico ran a profile of him over the summer asking in the headline if he could be president. The Washington Post has not one but two reporters here in Iowa, clocking his performance.”
“It’s why I’m here, too, to see whether Moulton is a Democratic savior: an honest-to-gosh military hero whose wholesome image, and optimistic palaver about bipartisan solutions, might appeal to the broad middle of the country. No doubt that’s what Moulton’s betting. But as I watch him awkwardly work this heartland crowd, I can’t help but wonder if he’s a candidate custom-built for a different era: a Harvard-bred white guy who thinks he deserves to be in charge, at a moment when neither party’s in the market for one of those.”
“Two House Democrats who have drawn increasing notice as potential 2020 White House hopefuls after opposing their own party’s leadership are heading to Iowa,” Politico reports.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) will join Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) “as the headliners of the annual Polk County Steak Fry of the Iowa Democratic Party in September… The trips fuel speculation that Moulton and Ryan are considering White House runs.”
Politico reports that one of Rep. Seth Moulton’s (D-MA) top advisers is urging him to run for president in 2020.
“This conversation—reported here for the first time—is precisely the type of talk that’s currently causing disgusted eye-rolling among significantly more tenured Democrats in Massachusetts and Washington. They dismiss Moulton, albeit never for attribution, as gratingly ambitious, a grandstanding backbencher who has advocated for the ouster of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to make way for new, younger standard-bearers—like himself. They see Moulton’s message of country over party as not so much admirable as annoying.”
“Every politician, of course, has enemies. But it’s Moulton’s allies who make him atypical—military leaders like David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, experienced political minds like David Gergen. These people look at Moulton and see the face of the future of the Democratic Party, a social progressive who’s fiscally more moderate. They see somebody who could chip away at the intractable ideological conflict that is crippling this country and appeal to the sorts of voters who have turned away from the party.”
First Read: “Members of the House don’t exactly have a great track record on presidential runs (No congressman has been elected president straight from the House since James Garfield in 1880), but the level of uncertainty in the Era of Trump makes it easy for an ambitious pol to say ‘why not me?’ Add that to the business and celebrity types who’ve now seen that political experience is no prerequisite for winning a national election, and you’ve got a recipe for a big and unruly presidential field. And, while united opposition to Trump is somewhat obscuring the big divides within the Democratic Party for now, a big and unruly presidential field is one surefire way to bring them to the forefront.”
“I’m not saying that Donald Trump is necessarily Hitler. I’m not saying that.”
— Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), quoted by the Boston Globe.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.