BOSTON – Congressman Seth Moulton today officially launched his campaign to challenge Senator Ed Markey in the Democratic Senate primary, saying we can’t wait six years for a new generation of leadership in the party.
In a video that accompanied the announcement, Moulton says “Our party has clung to the status quo,insisted on using the same old playbook, and isn’t fighting hard enough. The next generation will keep paying the cost if we don’t change course. This isn’t a fight we can put off for another six years. The future we all believe in is on the line.”
Congressman Moulton has never been one to sit on the sidelines or wait to act when he sees a problem. While completing four combat tours as a Marine infantry officer, he became one of the war’s most vocal critics. Moulton ran for Congress and beat John Tierney, a nine-term incumbent, despite being down 53 points in his first poll because he didn’t feel his community was getting the leadership it needed to meet their urgent needs. When he didn’t feel the party was doing enough to win back the House the last time President Trump was in office, he recruited and mentored fellow veterans through his organization, Serve America. His candidates flipped more than half the seats Democrats took back from Republicans nationwide, and have outperformed the party in every election since.
In his announcement, Moulton says he “wants Massachusetts to lead the nation in big, forward-looking,progressive solutions that make life better for working people.” He particularly focuses on the issues of affordability, health care, climate change, banning assault weapons and protecting our democracy.
Moulton also discusses his work in Congress, citing his authorship of the most ambitious high-speed-rail plan in decades, which would cut carbon emissions, create good-paying union jobs, and lead to record investments in affordable housing. And he details passage of his bipartisan 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline that’s connected over 13 million people in crisis to critical health support.Moulton also says we need to be willing to have difficult conversations. “We’re in crisis, and with everything we learned last election, I just don’t believe Senator Markey should be running for another six-year term at eighty years old,” says Moulton in the video. “Even more, I don’t think someone who’s been in Congress fora half century is the right person to meet this moment and win the future. Senator Markey is a good man,but it’s time for a new generation of leadership. And that’s why I’m running for U.S. Senate.”