Massachusetts U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem, held a recent campaign tour of western Massachusetts. He is challenging incumbent U.S Ed Markey in the Democratic primary in September.
During a stop in Holyoke, NEPM's Adam Frenier asked Moulton about what his focus on western Massachusetts would be, if elected.
U.S Representative Seth Moulton: Well, first of all, I'm just going to show up. And I've been I've been here three times in the last month-and-a-half. That's the kind of presence that your elected leaders need to have out here. If they're actually going to represent your interests. You can't understand a place if you're not out here on the ground. And I've learned so much with these three visits already, and I intend to learn a lot more.
Adam Frenier, NEPM: Let's talk about some of the issues that you're highlighting in your campaign. What are your top few bullet points as far as the most important things that you're going to push for if elected?
Well, first of all, we just need new leadership. So I am not going to support Senator Schumer if I go to Washington. On a platform of next generation leadership here in Massachusetts, we can't just keep the status quo in Washington, because the bottom line is that it's not working. The establishment has gotten us a second term of Donald Trump. He's hurting a lot of people across America and Massachusetts.
And I say that with great respect for Senator Markey and his, you know, half century of service to our Commonwealth. I just think it's time to pass the torch to the next generation, a generation of Democrats who will not only more fiercely oppose Trump, but will lead us forward, I believe, when Democrats lead, Democrats win.
Senator Markey has been on Capitol Hill for about 50 years. Talk about the challenge of facing such an entrenched incumbent.
You're always an underdog when you go up against a longtime incumbent. I learned that in my very first race for Congress when I was going against a nine term incumbent. And that's always challenging. But this is a time when people really are yearning for new leadership, when they want the next generation to step up. And you're seeing that with big Democratic wins we've had just in the last year, like Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, two former members of Congress that I helped get elected with Serve America in 2018 and Zorhan Mamdani in New York City.
They're all next generation leaders, and they're all Democrats who are willing to challenge the establishment, challenge the establishment to deliver on priorities today. All of them ran on affordability agendas, for example, which is not something you've heard out of Democratic leadership. It's happening with next generation Democratic candidates.
And I think a lot of things are just completely unaffordable in Massachusetts today, which is why I've released the most progressive affordability agenda of just about any candidate in the country today.
As we look at the election coming up in November in total, how critical is this for Democrats to take back the House or the Senate, for that matter?
I mean, it's almost existential for our democracy. We have got to put a check on this president, and we do that through winning the midterms. I also have an extensive agenda to protect the midterms so that they simply happen, because we've already heard rumblings from Donald Trump about how he's going to try to influence the midterms at the very least, maybe completely cancel them to preserve his power. He is genuinely afraid of Democrats winning.
But I think that we either win the midterms with a whimper based purely on opposition to Trump, or we show that Democrats can change and lead and say, look, we got the lesson from the last election when you beat us across the board, we're going to be different. We're going to be better. We're going to lead, not just oppose. And then we can win the midterms dramatically. And that kind of big mandate is what I'm fighting for, not just in Massachusetts, but across the country.
Let's circle back to western Massachusetts. What are a couple of issues important to the four western counties that you'd focus on if elected?
Well, first of all, affordability is first and foremost. I mean, there are so many folks today who are turning down their thermostats with the snow falling outside because they can't afford their electricity bills or their gas or oil bills. There are so many people who are going to get kicked off of healthcare because of the one big, beautiful bill. And a lot of concern. Parents worry that their kids can't achieve the American dream because of the zip code in which they happen to be born. So I am planting the flag in the ground with my affordability agenda, which says that three things housing, healthcare and education. They're just human rights. Human rights, not debatable. They should be our three for 30. In response to the The Republicans Project 2025. That's where I would start with affordability.
But we also have to plan for investing in the future. And that's why I have proposed to build West/East rail, not to the 20th century standards as it's currently proposed. A 2.5 hour train from Springfield to Boston that, frankly, is slower than driving and hardly anyone's going to take, and do what the rest of the world is doing, build it to high speed rail standards, and be able to get from Springfield to Boston in 40 minutes. That would open up enormous job opportunities for Western Massachusetts, enormous housing opportunities for everyone in Massachusetts. That's the kind of visionary leadership that I think we need and we deserve.
And finally, the Supreme Court today [ Feb. 19] issued its ruling on President Donald Trump's tariffs, saying that he exceeded his authority. Your reaction to that news?
Well, it should be no surprise that the president has exceeded his authority. He does that every single day. But sadly, what I expect to happen next is he'll just find another way to exceed his authority. He'll probably find another way to go around the law. And it will take a while for those new lawsuits to wind their way through the system and ultimately reach the Supreme Court. So while this is a victory for the rule of law and the Constitution and a check on Donald Trump, don't expect it to solve the problem.