Seth Moulton, Massachusetts Congressman, Is Running for President

“I’m running because I’m a patriot, because I believe in this country and because I’ve never wanted to sit on the sidelines when it comes to serving it,” Moulton said Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Moulton, 40, garnered attention in November when he helped lead a group of rebellious Democrats who had sought to deny Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the gavel in the new Congress. The effort was unsuccessful and Moulton ultimately voted for Pelosi.

Moulton, a Harvard-educated Marine veteran, has also focused on recruiting veterans to run for Congress as Democrats, including a handful who campaigned and won in 2018 promising not to back Pelosi.

“We need to restore our moral authority in everything we do. Whether it’s appointing a Cabinet member, negotiating a treaty or signing an executive order, I will always uphold America’s values,” he said in a video announcing his campaign.

During his time in Congress, Moulton has passed bills aimed at improving the way health care is delivered to veterans and making government travel more efficient. .

By focusing on his military service and his relative youth, Moulton will seek to draw a contrast to President Donald Trump, who is 72 and received several draft deferments during Vietnam.

“I’m going to talk about patriotism, about security, about service,” he said Monday. “These are issues that for too long Democrats have ceded to Republicans and we’ve got to stop that. Because this is actually where Donald Trump is weakest. We’ve got to take him on on these issues.”

Moulton also has released a plan that outlines a series of changes to the nation's elections, including automatic voter registration and making Election Day a national holiday. And he has argued for abolishing the filibuster and the Electoral College.

But with so many candidates in the race, Moulton faces a steep uphill climb to the nomination. He is one of four sitting members of the House of Representatives who is running for president. All are seeking to become the first person to be elected president from a seat in the House since James Garfield in 1880.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.