Days after Donald Trump won his second election to the White House, Democrats flocked to the New York Times to blame their stunning electoral defeat on alleged capitulations to minority groups — and cement themselves as the future leaders of the party.
Visit lebandit.lat for more information.
Few appeared more eager than Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a moderate congressman and former presidential candidate with a reputation for bucking party leadership.
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone,” Moulton lamented to the paper. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
That was over a year ago. Now, Moulton is running to unseat one of the most progressive members of the Senate, in the bluest state in the country, on a platform of generational change. And the anti-trans comments he’d hoped would establish him as a thought leader could help tank his campaign.
Polls consistently show Moulton trailing his opponent, incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, particularly among younger voters. Despite making a case for a new generation in office, Moulton has a 3 percent favorability rating among likely voters ages 18 to 34, compared to Markey’s 67 percent, according to a February 24 poll from the University of New Hampshire. Only 2 percent of likely Massachusetts primary voters under 34 said they would vote for Moulton if the race were held that day, while 53 percent said they would support Markey.
Though it’s still early — most Massachusetts voters won’t cast their ballots until September 1 — the state of the race suggests that Moulton, while attempting to style himself as the vanguard of a brash new Democratic party, picked up some serious political baggage.
Tatishe M. Nteta, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said Moulton was far from alone in his post-mortem for Kamala Harris. “The problem is, those comments now have defined [Moulton], not just as a national figure who bucked Democratic viewpoints, but now within the state,” he said. “In order for him to win, he’s going to either have to walk it back or justify it.”
There were warning signs at the time. Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said the Salem congressman was “playing politics with people,” but Moulton refused to apologize. He argued that the backlash only reinforced his point and accused Democrats of forcing people to “change our values” to meet “the demands of one very small minority group,” by doing things like making them “put pronouns in their email signatures.”
“His ideas are from the last generation.”
“We were extremely offended by the comments that Seth Moulton made,” David Seaton, a college student at Tufts University and vice president of political affairs for the College Democrats of America, told The Intercept. “While Seth Moulton is running on a platform of generational change, his ideas are from the last generation, and his values are certainly from generations past.”
Related
Jon Chait Thinks Kamala Harris Went Too Far Left. He’s Just Falling for Trump’s Demagoguery.
Moulton is now stuck in a political quagmire trapping other Democratic pundits and politicians, some with presidential designs, who tripped over themselves to blame Harris’s loss on the party becoming too woke and out of touch. But now, as voters seem more concerned with rising costs, mounting war, and waning access to health care than pronoun usage, those comments seem less like a prediction and more like a political liability.
“When you look at how much the world has changed since that moment,” said Josie Caballero, director of voting at Advocates for Trans Equality, “it just seems very out of touch with where we are now.”
Protesters placed stickers on the front door of Rep. Seth Moulton’s congressional office in Salem, Mass., on Nov. 8, 2024. Photo: Matthew J. Lee/Boston Globe via Getty ImagesIt might seem obvious that transgender rights aren’t the losing issue that Moulton predicted in deep-blue Massachusetts, where in 2018 residents overwhelmingly voted to keep statewide protections for trans people in place. But Caballero pointed to elections that suggested similar trends in red and purple states like Maine, Texas, and Virginia, where Republican Winsome Earle-Sears’s campaign and affiliated PACs spent millions on anti-transgender attack advertisements targeting her Democratic opponent, now-Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
The former Virginia congresswoman did not capitulate on her positions regarding trans rights and not only trounced Earle-Sears on Election Day, but a poll of likely voters found they trusted her on “transgender policy” by a margin of 13 points.
Related
Democrats Swept Tuesday Night’s Election. Now What?
In New York City, Zohran Mamdani won his mayoral election after running an advertisement celebrating trans history and pledging his support to the community, along with a detailed policy agenda.
Shelby Chestnut, executive director of the Transgender Law Center, said that voters this cycle are looking for candidates who can speak to universal issues like health care and affordability, instead of scapegoating vulnerable groups.
“I think we are living in a time where people are asking for an intersectional approach, where all bodily autonomy is respected, where people’s concerns are heard,” he said.
In Texas, Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico has pivoted toward economic populism when addressing anti-trans attacks.
“The only minority destroying this country is the billionaires,” Talarico said on TV news, criticizing the media’s fixation on trans athletes. “Trans people are 1 percent of the population. We are focused on the wrong 1 percent.”
Graham Platner, who is running in a competitive primary for the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has similarly addressed the issue of transgender rights.
“An out-of-state billionaire is funding an anti-trans ballot question in Maine — so that we’ll spend our time fighting about trans people instead of raising his taxes,” said Platner in an interview with Slate.
Still, Chestnut said that while Platner and Talarico’s stances offer a necessary “starting point” for Democrats, they’ll also have to address the topic directly and advocate and explain their beliefs.
“The Democrats’ response was, let’s not say anything and hope it’s just a non-issue.”
“We’re also in a moment where not saying anything proved to also be a losing strategy. Our opposition in the presidential election, on every corner, was blaming transgender people,” he said. “The Democrats’ response was, let’s not say anything and hope it’s just a non-issue. And the reality of it is, it’s an issue.”
In Massachusetts, Moulton’s tone has shifted from his more reactionary rhetoric in the immediate aftermath of the 2024 election, said Caballero.
“We went through the whole gay rights movement. We went through the whole civil rights movement. We never had to say, you know, ‘Seth Moulton: Straight’ or ‘Seth Moulton: White,’” he told WGBH at the time. “And all of a sudden, we have to change all our values to meet the needs or demands of one very small minority group.”
Now, Moulton appears to be walking a tighter line without apologizing or qualifying his comments. He has shied away from making additional comments about trans athletes or pronouns in recent interviews and has instead focused on emphasizing his voting record.
“Congressman Moulton is acutely aware of the trauma the transgender community is facing,” wrote a spokesperson for Moulton in a statement to The Intercept, echoing other recent interviews. “He is a career-long ally with a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign for his voting record, and is a member of the Equality Caucus.”
The spokesperson added that Moulton still believes that “Democrats must engage in difficult conversations” in order to keep the transgender community safe.
Related
Gavin Newsom’s Biggest Problem Is Gavin Newsom
The tide has not completely turned. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the current unofficial front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has continued to fan the flames of hysteria over the participation of trans athletes in sports — despite the fact that there were fewer than 10 trans athletes out of some 510,000 in the entire NCAA as of 2024.
“We just couldn’t figure out how to make this fair,” he told Katie Couric this month, referring to trans girls’ participation in track competitions.
Rather than assuaging people with questions about transgender issues, these comments from Democrats help Republicans to make trans rights a “wedge issue,” said Chestnut.
Despite his controversies, an Emerson poll in February found that Newsom had a slight lead with likely Democratic voters if the presidential primary were held that day — though there are still more than two years and one midterms cycle to go before voters pick their next president.
For his part, Moulton has denied changing his opinion on transgender rights or his rhetoric. “His position has never changed, and his record reflects this,” wrote a spokesperson for Moulton, emphasizing his support for the Transgender Bill of Rights in 2023, ahead of the 2024 election. He co-sponsored the bill again in 2026.
But Bailey Kelly, a student at Tufts University and secretary of the College Democrats of Massachusetts, said they view Moulton as a fair weather friend on the issue.
“We see through that flip-flopping,” said Kelly, who runs the College Democrats of Massachusetts’ digital operations in support of Markey, after the senator won their endorsement. “And it’s insulting that he thinks we don’t see it.”
Related
Ed Markey Beats Back Senate Challenge From Joe Kennedy
Authenticity is key for younger voters, said Amanda Litman, co-founder and president of Run for Something. “People are allowed to grow and change,” said Litman, “but it has to come from a place of truth by the candidate, or they’re not gonna be able to compellingly sell it. And I think that is the challenge for [Moulton].”
In January, both College Democrats of America and College Democrats of Massachusetts announced they were endorsing Markey after he won their internal vote in a landslide. Seaton said Moulton’s comments were “of the utmost importance” in the group’s decision not to support him.
Redemption for candidates like Moulton is possible, Chestnut said. “There is nothing more powerful than some humility, and saying ‘you know what, I was wrong.’”
But to date, Moulton has not apologized for his comments, although he has stated that he “may not have used exactly the right words,” in an interview with CNN.
“Clarification is one thing, but walking back is another. And he has not done either up until this point, and Markey is going to seize on this,” said Nteta, the political science professor. “If Moulton is going to win, he is going to have to assuage the concerns of people in the state about how he is going to govern when he gets to the Senate.”
The post Seth Moulton Saw Trans Rights as a Political Liability. It Could Doom His Senate Campaign. appeared first on The Intercept.