Seth Moulton to End Presidential Campaign During Speech At DNC Summer Meeting
San Francisco, CA - During his speech this morning at the Democratic National Committee's Summer meeting, Seth Moulton will be ending his campaign for president. Seth will be speaking at approximately 10:45 AM PST / 1:45 PM EST. His remarks as prepared can be found below.
Hello DNC! Thank you so much—for having me here today, and for all that you do.
I have only been in this race since April—I got in later than many of the other candidates—but I couldn’t be more proud of what our team has accomplished over these last several months.
We have been challenging Donald Trump where he’s weakest—as Commander in Chief—and showing this country that Democrats are the party of making America strong overseas and safe here at home.
We have been running to take back patriotism from the Republican party. Because as we all know here in this room, true patriotism isn’t about hugging the flag, but about fighting to make sure the flag stands for something.
We have put forward the most aggressive call to national service in a generation, asking all 33 million young Americans to serve here at home and tackle the biggest challenges of today like climate change.
And this campaign has even helped me face a few of my own fears.
For the first time in my life, I talked publicly about dealing with post-traumatic stress from my four combat tours in Iraq.
… about how I sought help to deal with my post-traumatic stress—help that has made me a better public servant and a better husband and father.
And our team put forward a plan that will end the stigma around mental health—the same stigma that kept me silent for so long, and that kept every presidential candidate before me from talking about mental health struggles themselves.
That’s what this campaign has been about, and I’m so proud of what we’ve done.
But today, I want to use this opportunity, with all of you here, to announce that I am ending my campaign for president.
Though this campaign is not ending the way we hoped, I am leaving this race knowing that we raised issues that are vitally important to the American people and our future.
I couldn’t have done any of this without my amazing wife Liz and daughter Emmy behind me.
I couldn’t have done it without my extraordinary team, who worked incredibly hard for a longshot candidate because they believed in me and our mission like they believe in our country.
And I definitely couldn’t have done it without everyone who supported me and came out to events and donated and volunteered for this campaign all across this country.
Each of you reminds me, everywhere and every day, of what truly makes America great.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
…
While this is the end of my campaign, it is certainly not the end of our efforts.
I will once again be running for Congress in the 6th District of Massachusetts, my home, and I can’t wait to get back at it.
I will be relaunching my organization, Serve America—which helped take back the House last cycle by electing 21 service-driven Democrats in tough districts across America—to work with all of you to keep the House, to flip the Senate, and to win back statehouses across the country next November. Because those down-ballot races are every bit as important as the Presidential.
And most of all, I will be campaigning my ass off for whoever wins our nomination in 2020.
Donald Trump is going to be harder to beat than most people think. But we can, and we must, beat him—because our country, our values, and our future depend on it.
As a party, we need to spend these next months doing everything we can to determine who our strongest nominee will be. And as we do so, we can’t be distracted by the latest outrage on Twitter or the reality show politics of the day.
We need to stay grounded in what it’s going to take to win over voters—all kinds of Democrats, Independents like the Obama-Trump voters, and even disaffected Republicans—and bring the country together around beating Donald Trump.
Because you can be a Democrat, or a Republican, or an Independent. But if you’re an American, you know that we’re better than this.
And we’re going to prove it at the ballot box in 2020.
…
Now before I go, I want to say one more thing.
My mentor in college, Reverend Peter Gomes, once said, “Hope is the stuff that gets us through and beyond when the worst that can happen, happens.”
And oftentimes, in these past couple of years, and even in these past couple of weeks, it’s felt like the worst that could happen in America has happened.
But when I traveled the country and district over these last several months, I found hope.
I found hope in the veterans I met who are working to end the stigma around mental health by sharing their stories for the very first time.
I found hope in the kids who are walking out of school demanding progress on climate change and guns.
I found hope in the teachers and reporters who have been striking for basic pay.
I found hope in the women who have been marching for basic respect.
I found hope in the amazing, diverse, talented group of leaders we have running for president.
And I find hope here in this room, and in rooms like it across America, where Democrats are banding together—despite all of our differences—to beat Donald Trump.
And to fight for who we are.
That hope is what gets us, as individuals, through the darkest of times.
And it is what will lead our country through the darkest of times as well.
You know, I often say that in the men and women I served with in Iraq, I saw the best of America in the worst of circumstances. In the midst of a war many of us disagreed with—a war I spoke out against—we always knew that despite the failures in Washington, we were fighting for each other.
We had each other’s backs.
And we believed in our values so much that they were willing to fight for them.
Well, I saw the same thing in this campaign.
I saw Americans from all backgrounds, all races, all religions, standing up and fighting for our values because they believe in our country—even when it lets them down.
Especially when it lets them down.
Because THAT is when the country needs us most.
We have a lot of work to do, and some tough months ahead of us, but we can do this. We wake up tomorrow in the America that we make. And I’m so proud to be making it better with all of you.
Thank you.
