Candidate No. 20 Has One Thing Republicans Will Like

Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton opposed Nancy Pelosi for House speaker
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2019 6:14 AM CDT
Updated Apr 22, 2019 6:47 AM CDT
Candidate No. 20 Has One Thing Republicans Will Like
Congressman Seth Moulton, D-Mass., facing center, participates in Pints and Politics at the Barley House in Concord, N.H. Saturday, March 16, 2019.   (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)

All political eyes are on Joe Biden this week for his expected entry into the 2020 race. In the meantime, however, the 20th Democratic candidate has joined the field as a dark horse. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, 42, announced his candidacy on Good Morning America and in a YouTube video. The field is already so crowded that Moulton is the third candidate from Massachusetts alone, behind Elizabeth Warren and William Weld. So who is Moulton? Some quick takes:

  • Two key camps: He's going to focus in particular on young voters and military vets, per Politico. He "plans to run a campaign focused on national security and defense issues, which his campaign argues will make him a foil" to President Trump.
  • Opposed Pelosi: Perhaps Moulton's biggest foray into the national spotlight came when he helped lead an unsuccessful effort among Democrats to prevent Nancy Pelosi from becoming House speaker after the 2018 midterms, reports the AP. He said it was time for new leadership.
  • The big hurdles: Name recognition and money. "I think it’s going to be a very tough climb for him to stand out from the rest of the pack in the Democratic field," a political scientist from Stonehill College tells Boston's WBUR.
  • Bio: He "has an impeccable resume that is matched by big political ambition," per WBUR. He got his bachelor's in physics from Harvard in 2001, then served four tours in Iraq as a Marine before getting his master’s in business and public policy at the Harvard Business School and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was elected to Congress in 2014, and his campaign site is now live.
  • His quote: "I'm running because we have to beat Donald Trump, and I want us to beat Donald Trump because I love this country. We've never been a country that gets everything right. But we're a country that, at our best, thinks that we might."
(More Seth Moulton stories.)

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