Democrat Seth Moulton ’97 won the congressional seat in Massachusetts’s Sixth Congressional District on Tuesday evening.
Moulton defeated Republican candidate Richard Tisei of Lynnfield, Mass., in the general election. The election was called by ABC on November 4 at 9:30 p.m., when Tisei conceded.
“I want to thank you and all the voters of the Sixth District,” said Moulton at a celebration in Salem.”I am humbled by your trust and by your faith.”
Moulton returned to Andover on Thursday evening for a Veteran’s Day dinner.
“It’s exciting, it’s energizing, but it’s also very humbling,” said Moulton, of his victory. “Fundamentally, this is a job of public service and I’m honored that the people of the 6th district chose me to be their representative in Washington, and it’s a responsibility that I’ll take very seriously,” he said to The Phillipian.
Moulton said that returning to Andover felt like coming home. “This school has been very important to my past. I have no doubt that I would not be a congressman today if not for the experience I had at Andover,” said Moulton.
For the first time since the 1996 Congressional election, the Sixth District had no incumbent in the running. Moulton defeated incumbent Democrat John Tierney, who was seeking his tenth term, in the Democratic Primary on September 9, 2014.
In Congress, Moulton wants to eliminate the payroll tax cap to fill the funding gaps in Social Security, increase benefits for veterans by improving VA healthcare quality, increasing VA funding and expanding educational opportunity, according to his website, and improve public education by supporting bills that would fund additional training for public elementary educators and establish better standards for secondary school teachers, according to his website.
Moulton supports specific social issues such as women’s rights, tougher gun control and immigration. He also does not believe in using American ground troops against ISIS, according to his website.
Moulton also wants to improve transportation by converting the MBTA commuter rail into electric trains, which would be faster and allow for all-day services, according to his website.
“We have a lot of work to do [in congress],” said Moulton in his acceptance speech.
After leaving Andover, Moulton attended Harvard College where he graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor’s in Physics. He then joined the Marine Corps and served four tours of duty in Iraq over a five-year period, receiving the Bronze Star Medal for valor and the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for valor.
Moulton received an MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and an MBA from Harvard Business School before beginning his career in public service.
Moulton now lives in Salem and owns a health-care company, Eastern Healthcare Partners, with a classmate from Harvard Business School.
Massachusetts’s Sixth District contains most of Essex County and parts of Andover, including parts of Phillips Academy. The district is regarded as a battleground district, according to rollcall.com.
