Days after Donald Trump<\/span> won his second election to the White House, Democrats flocked to the New York Times to blame<\/a> their stunning electoral defeat on alleged capitulations to minority groups<\/a> \u2014 and cement themselves as the future leaders of the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n Few appeared more eager than Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a moderate congressman and former presidential candidate with a reputation for bucking party leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone,\u201d Moulton lamented<\/a> to the paper. \u201cI have two little girls, I don\u2019t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I\u2019m supposed to be afraid to say that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That was over a year ago. Now, Moulton is running to unseat one of the most progressive members of the Senate, in the bluest state in the country, on a platform of generational change. And the anti-trans comments he\u2019d hoped would establish him as a thought leader could help tank his campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n Polls consistently show Moulton trailing his opponent<\/a>, incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, particularly among younger voters. Despite making a case for a new generation in office, Moulton has a 3 percent favorability rating among likely voters ages 18 to 34, compared to Markey\u2019s 67 percent, according to a February 24 poll<\/a> from the University of New Hampshire. Only 2 percent<\/a> of likely Massachusetts primary voters under 34 said they would vote for Moulton if the race were held that day, while 53 percent<\/a> said they would support Markey.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Though it\u2019s still early \u2014 most Massachusetts voters won\u2019t cast their ballots until September 1 \u2014 the state of the race suggests that Moulton, while attempting to style himself as the vanguard of a brash new Democratic party, picked up some serious political baggage.<\/p>\n Tatishe M. Nteta, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said Moulton was far from alone in his post-mortem for Kamala Harris. \u201cThe problem is, those comments now have defined [Moulton], not just as a national figure who bucked Democratic viewpoints, but now within the state,\u201d he said. \u201cIn order for him to win, he\u2019s going to either have to walk it back or justify it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There were warning signs at the time. Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said<\/a> the Salem congressman was \u201cplaying politics with people,\u201d but Moulton refused to apologize. He argued that the backlash only reinforced his point<\/a> and accused Democrats<\/a> of forcing people to \u201cchange our values\u201d to meet \u201cthe demands of one very small minority group,\u201d by doing things like making them \u201cput pronouns in their email signatures.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHis ideas are from the last generation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cWe were extremely offended by the comments that Seth Moulton made,\u201d David Seaton, a college student at Tufts University and vice president of political affairs for the College Democrats of America, told The Intercept. \u201cWhile Seth Moulton is running on a platform of generational change, his ideas are from the last generation, and his values are certainly from generations past.\u201d<\/p>\n Moulton is now stuck in a political quagmire trapping other Democratic pundits and politicians, some with presidential designs, who tripped over themselves to blame Harris\u2019s loss on the party becoming too woke and out of touch. But now, as voters seem more concerned with rising costs<\/a>, mounting war<\/a>, and waning access to health care<\/a> than pronoun usage, those comments seem less like a prediction and more like a political liability.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at how much the world has changed since that moment,\u201d said Josie Caballero, director of voting at Advocates for Trans Equality, \u201cit just seems very out of touch with where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n It might seem<\/span> obvious that transgender rights aren\u2019t the losing issue that Moulton predicted in deep-blue Massachusetts, where in 2018 residents overwhelmingly voted to keep<\/a> statewide protections for trans people in place. But Caballero pointed to elections that suggested similar trends in red and purple states like Maine, Texas, and Virginia, where Republican Winsome Earle-Sears\u2019s campaign and affiliated PACs spent millions<\/a> on anti-transgender attack advertisements targeting her Democratic opponent, now-Gov. Abigail Spanberger<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The former Virginia congresswoman did not capitulate on her positions regarding trans rights and not only trounced Earle-Sears on Election Day, but a poll of likely voters<\/a> found they trusted her on \u201ctransgender policy\u201d by a margin of 13 points.<\/p>\n In New York City, Zohran Mamdani won his mayoral election after running an advertisement<\/a> celebrating trans history and pledging his support to the community, along with a detailed policy agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shelby Chestnut, executive director of the Transgender Law Center, said that voters this cycle are looking for candidates who can speak to universal issues like health care and affordability, instead of scapegoating vulnerable groups.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we are living in a time where people are asking for an intersectional approach, where all bodily autonomy is respected, where people\u2019s concerns are heard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In Texas, Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico<\/a> has pivoted toward economic populism when addressing anti-trans attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe only minority destroying this country is the billionaires,\u201d Talarico said<\/a> on TV news, criticizing the media\u2019s fixation on trans athletes. \u201cTrans people are 1 percent of the population. We are focused on the wrong 1 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n Graham Platner, who is running in a competitive primary for the Democratic nomination<\/a> to challenge Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has similarly addressed the issue of transgender rights.<\/p>\n \u201cAn out-of-state billionaire is funding an anti-trans ballot question in Maine \u2014 so that we\u2019ll spend our time fighting about trans people instead of raising his taxes,\u201d said Platner in an interview with Slate.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Still, Chestnut said that while Platner and Talarico\u2019s stances offer a necessary \u201cstarting point\u201d for Democrats, they\u2019ll also have to address the topic directly and advocate and explain their beliefs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Democrats\u2019 response was, let\u2019s not say anything and hope it\u2019s just a non-issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cWe\u2019re also in a moment where not saying anything proved to also be a losing strategy. Our opposition in the presidential election, on every corner, was blaming transgender people,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Democrats\u2019 response was, let\u2019s not say anything and hope it\u2019s just a non-issue. And the reality of it is, it\u2019s an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n In Massachusetts, Moulton\u2019s tone has shifted from his more reactionary rhetoric in the immediate aftermath of the 2024 election, said Caballero.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went through the whole gay rights movement. We went through the whole civil rights movement. We never had to say, you know, \u2018Seth Moulton: Straight\u2019 or \u2018Seth Moulton: White,\u2019\u201d he told WGBH<\/a> at the time. \u201cAnd all of a sudden, we have to change all our values to meet the needs or demands of one very small minority group.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, Moulton appears to be walking a tighter line without apologizing or qualifying his comments. He has shied away from making additional comments about trans athletes or pronouns in recent interviews and has instead focused on emphasizing his voting record.<\/p>\n \u201cCongressman Moulton is acutely aware of the trauma the transgender community is facing,\u201d wrote a spokesperson for Moulton in a statement to The Intercept, echoing other recent interviews<\/a>. \u201cHe is a career-long ally with a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign for his voting record, and is a member of the Equality Caucus.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson added that Moulton still believes that \u201cDemocrats must engage in difficult conversations\u201d in order to keep the transgender community safe.<\/p>\n The tide has not completely turned. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the current unofficial front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has continued to fan the flames of hysteria over the participation of trans athletes in sports \u2014 despite the fact that there were fewer than 10 trans athletes<\/a> out of some 510,000 in the entire NCAA as of 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe just couldn\u2019t figure out how to make this fair,\u201d he told Katie Couric this month<\/a>, referring to trans girls\u2019 participation in track competitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rather than assuaging people with questions about transgender issues, these comments from Democrats help Republicans to make trans rights a \u201cwedge issue,\u201d said Chestnut.<\/p>\n Despite his controversies, an Emerson poll in February found that Newsom had a slight lead<\/a> with likely Democratic voters if the presidential primary were held that day \u2014 though there are still more than two years and one midterms cycle<\/a> to go before voters pick their next president.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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