Seth Moulton is running social media ads asking if he should run for higher office
The Massachusetts congressman plans to make a decision in the coming weeks.
Rep. Seth Moulton is thinking about running for president. But he also wants to know what you think.
The third-term Massachusetts congressman, who is seriously considering a 2020 bid for president, recently began running social media ads asking users if they want him to run for higher office.
According to Facebook’s political ad library, Moulton’s team spent several hundred dollars on the ads, which ran from April 4 to this Thursday on the platform. They were also spotted on Instagram earlier this week. The Salem Democrat’s team displayed two versions on Facebook, both of which plug his time in the Marines and more recent work in Congress. Just one version of the ad asks the question up front.
“Do you want to see Seth run for higher office?” reads the ad’s graphic.
Both versions however link to an email list-building page on his campaign website with a survey question asking the same question.
Moulton plans to make a decision by the end of the month, according to his spokesman, Matt Corridoni.
The 40-year-old congressman has recently been traveling to early-voting primary states, including Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, casting himself as a relatively moderate outsider with a focus on national security in the increasingly crowded field of Democratic candidates that also includes fellow Bay Stater, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld is also challenging President Donald Trump in the Republican primary).
Since announcing that he was considering a 2020 run, Moulton has called for bold government reforms, like abolishing the filibuster and the Electoral College, and a new foreign policy strategy. While his platform includes progressive agenda items like raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and the support for a Green New Deal, Moulton has also stopped short of embracing Medicare-for-All and tuition-free college, in favor of more incremental health care and education reforms.
