The Revolution started here. These Mass. lawmakers think the Democrats’ reboot should too
By John L. Micek, MassLive
When he looks around Capitol Hill, U.S Rep. Seth Moulton finds no shortage of intelligent people. They serve on committees together. They brush elbows in the hallways and they talk before votes.
But political courage? That’s a commodity that’s in short supply, Moulton, D-6th District, said.
“The reality is that there’s not a lot of political courage on either side of the aisle right now,” the Salem lawmaker told a mixed crowd of business leaders, lobbyists and the politically active who crammed into an upstairs meeting room at the Hampshire House at the foot of Beacon Hill on Monday morning.
And if Democrats want to retake control of the U.S. House next year and set up a new generation of leadership, they’re going to need people who bring a surplus of guts to the table.
“It is legitimately difficult to serve in government,” Moulton continued. “Don’t sign up because it’s easy. Sign up because it’s hard.”
Twenty-four hours earlier, U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss delivered the essentially the same message to a similar audience, though the medium differed significantly.
“Americans know that Democrats are against Donald Trump, and rightfully so,” Auchincloss, D-4th District, said during an appearance on WCVB-TV’s “On the Record” program.
“And because they don’t know what we’re for, we’re perceived as being for the status quo and the status quo is broken,” the Newton lawmaker, who’s frequently mentioned as a 2026 contender for U.S. Senate, said.
“Costs are spiraling. People don’t have confidence in law and order. Democrats need to draw with a fresh box of crayons: Big ideas. New leaders,” he said.
On one level, neither Auchincloss nor Moulton was plowing new ground.
The televised pitch from the former and the speech before the civic-minded New England Council by the latter were the latest iteration of Democratic soul-searching that’s been going on since roughly the moment former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to President Donald Trump last November.
What was different — or at least felt that way — was the sense that Democrats are finally, slowly, painfully, getting the message that generational change may be the only thing that can save them.
Senior party leaders went into freak-out mode when avowed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mandami won New York City’s mayoral primary last month.
But they were also smart enough to know that Mandami’s laser focus on housing and affordability issues was a winner, and the main reason that young voters flocked to his campaign.
Another example: Seventy-year-old U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, of South Boston, getting passed over for a prime leadership post on the powerful House Oversight Committee.
U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., 47, got the nod as the panel’s ranking Democrat, over Lynch, D-8th District.
That’s not exactly a seismic shift — the Bay State’s two U.S. senators are septuagenarians — but it is a start.
Both Auchincloss and Moulton have tried to put money and muscle where their mouths are with a pair of political action committees dedicated to electing more Democrats to the House.
Auchincloss has signed on with the newly formed Majority Democrats, made up of 30 federal, state and local officials, according to The New York Times.
The group is working for a total Democratic rebrand. And Auchincloss, a Marine veteran, currently the only Bay State lawmaker in its ranks, is all in.
“Generational change is a constant. What is necessary are the ideas. The Democratic Party has exhausted itself over the last decade by fighting Donald Trump,” he told WCVB-TV on Sunday.
“And because of that, we don’t have the intellectual dynamism that you need, I think, to attract new voters. And so we’ve got to put ideas out there and then have a tight feedback loop with voters about what ideas are resonating and what are not.”
And that means taking on the big issues, he continued.
“How are we going to radically reduce the cost of housing and health care for the middle class? How are we going to deliver excellence in education by peeling the bark off the social media corporations and making them pay to fix what they’ve broken?” he mused. “How can we set a big scientific north star of curing Alzheimer’s by mid-century ideas that enliven our base and also orient us toward those swing votes?”
The new effort comes on top of the Auchincloss-helmed “Beyond Thoughts and Prayers,” PAC, which worked to elect pro-gun violence reduction candidates last year.
Moulton, meanwhile, has his Serve America PAC, which has worked to get Democratic veterans elected in some of the most competitive districts in the country.
Like Auchincloss, Moulton is also a Marine veteran.
“Back in 2018, more than half the seats that Democrats flipped across the entire country were my serve America candidates,” he said. “People who have served the country before, whether it be in Teach For America, or the Marine Corps or City Year or Coast Guard, who have worn a uniform, who have made some sacrifices for the greater good, they are the kind of leaders that we need to take us forward.”
Speaking to the New England Council on Monday, Moulton stressed the nation’s long history of public service and volunteerism, pointing out that it was volunteers who waged the American War for Independence, whose 250th anniversary is now upon us.
“We didn’t solve the problems of 18th-century America with the King’s Army,” he said in response to a 20-year-old questioner in the audience. “We solved it by young Americans standing up and getting involved.“
“Think about how many 16-year-olds, 17-year-olds fought in the Revolution,” he continued, “So I think, actually, this is a time when we need more young people to get involved because this is a time when some of the decisions may be [the] most difficult.”
They’re certainly not going to get any easier.