Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) continues to make facing a primary challenger in 2020 a virtual certainty.
The three-term congressman has been the most outspoken Democrat opposing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) bid to become Speaker of the House for the second time.
The Massachusetts lawmaker really wanted Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) — one of the two House Democrats who hasn’t co-sponsored the Equality Act to offer “civil rights protections for sexual orientation and gender identity” — to challenge Pelosi.
Instead, Fudge decided to back Pelosi’s Speaker bid.
Moulton appeared to be keeping a lower profile on the anti-Pelosi front after he was heckled at a town hall in his district, during which he compared Pelosi to British conservative icon Margaret Thatcher last month. The Washington Post even reported last week that he was negotiating with Pelosi and seeming to shift his focus to other longtime members of Democratic House leadership.
But any goodwill Moulton had rebuilt with Democrats to his left may be gone after the congressman suggested on Friday that Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) criticism of anti-Pelosi criticism was sexist.
The Massachusetts congressman told Boston Public Radio that Ocasio-Cortez tweeting “All the challenges to Leader Pelosi are coming from her right” last month was sexist because one anti-Pelosi Democrat is a woman.
“It’s offensive because [Rep. Linda Sánchez] is in the progressive caucus, she is not to the right of Nancy Pelosi, and it’s also offensive because she’s a woman.”
Moulton could have correctly left it at noting Sánchez (D-CA), a nine-term congresswoman, is not to Pelosi’s right.
Out of the 11 incumbent House Democrats who signed an anti-Pelosi letter last month, only Sánchez has supported Trump’s agenda less frequently than Pelosi. Moulton himself has voted with President Donald Trump nearly a quarter of the time.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic socialist who will become the youngest-ever congresswoman next month, made no mention of Sánchez or anything regarding Pelosi’s gender or potential sexism in the tweet that made Moulton mad. (For what it’s worth, she certainly could have, as 14 of the 16 Democrats who signed a letter opposing Pelosi are also all men.)
All the challenges to Leader Pelosi are coming from her right, in an apparent effort to make the party even more conservative and bent toward corporate interests.
Hard pass. So long as Leader Pelosi remains the most progressive candidate for Speaker, she can count on my support. https://t.co/yNVa8IorWY
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 21, 2018
Pelosi remains the favorite to be the next House Speaker, as Moulton’s anti-Pelosi faction still hasn’t convinced anyone to challenge her.
Ocasio-Cortez, the 29-year-old congresswoman-elect who has gained national notoriety for how she uses social media to promote her agenda and dunk on conservative critics, hasn’t responded to Moulton as of publishing.
Later in Friday’s interview, Moulton said Fudge decided not to challenge Pelosi because “she had a personal tragedy back home.”
Moulton was apparently referring to “Fudge writing a letter of support in 2015 for a Cleveland judge convicted of domestic violence who this month was arrested in connection with his wife’s murder,” per Splinter News.
“Well what actually happened is that it was very, very tragic in a political sense. The existing leadership put out some opposition research against her. But what happened was a judge whom she and about 40 other people had supported in a letter at one point killed his wife.”
Moulton had been mentioned as a potential 2020 presidential candidate before gaining notoriety over his Pelosi opposition.
“I think his future in the House is pretty limited,” NBC’s Chuck Todd recently said, before suggesting Moulton should consider relocating to the Massachusetts state House or mount a primary challenge to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) “if he wants to continue his political career.”