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Salem Dems reportedly working to find Moulton challenger
The Salem Democratic City Committee voted in favor of a letter condemning his comments after Rep. Seth Moulton made controversial remarks about transgender athletes.
Democrats in Salem are gearing up to find a challenger ready to take on Rep. Seth Moulton, as the congressman faces continued backlash over comments he made about transgender athletes.
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton told The New York Times after the election. “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.”
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Moulton stood by his remarks, and although some local pundits have praised him for trying to open the dialogue on a controversial issue, he is facing calls for resignation and criticism from Massachusetts Democrats and LGBTQ groups.
That antagonism continued Thursday, when the Salem Democratic City Committee voted on a letter condemning Moulton’s comments. About 20 members of the committee cast their votes, with only one opposed to it and one abstaining, The Boston Globe reported.
Committee Chair Liz Bradt told the paper that the group is actively looking for people to “run against him and win.” She has heard from “several” people who are interested in taking a crack at Moulton, who has represented Massachusetts’ 6th District since 2015. He just ran unopposed, securing another two-year term.
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The Salem Democratic City Committee did not respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday and Friday.
“I don’t put a lot of credence in the word of someone who refers to a fellow Democrat as a Nazi cooperator,” a spokesperson for Moulton told the Globe in response to Bradt’s comments.
Bradt told the paper that she had said in a private email that Moulton “is what is know[n] as a ‘cooperator’ in Nazi times.”
Protesters gathered outside Moulton’s office last weekend. Among those who have come out against him are Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo, the Salem School Committee, and even Gov. Maura Healey.
“A discussion about transgender athletes is a different discussion, as somebody who was a college athlete, right?” Healey said earlier this week. “But, there’s too much conflating of things right now, and what I see — and what I saw in that comment [from Moulton] — was playing politics with people. We shouldn’t do that. We shouldn’t do that. We should have real conversations and not play politics with people, particularly young people and folks who are vulnerable.”
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