Just before Congressman Seth Moulton strolled into his district office on Salem’s Front Street on a bright summer morning, a group of his young staff gathered in front of a screen for a daily briefing with their counterparts in Washington. Belying their polished political look of dress shirts and ties, the dapper crew were full of energy, excited for a new day, impossibly young and optimistic.
Moulton’s downtown Salem office sometimes gets pegged for a co-work space, with its communal standing desks, or another new restaurant, since a young woman greeter is stationed at the front door. The space is as bright and sleek as Moulton himself.
“You see in this office the glass and light. It’s transparent and collaborative, and that’s what government should be,” says the Sixth District representative, who wraps up his first term this fall. “Too often that’s not what government is…and we’re going to change that.”
Upon entering through the glass door, I first saw a college-aged kid in orange headphones, plunked down in front of his Mac with a giant American flag on the brick wall behind him and the sticker on his laptop staring back at me: “Resistance is futile.”
Moulton’s fresh face and can-do attitude seem to inspire young people who think government is something slow and ugly that takes place in tacky buildings that smell bad.
“We need good people in government, and we need better people than we have,” he says, with total earnest sincerity. “The way to fix that is not to give up on government; it’s to improve it. That’s how we get Washington more representative of America. I spend a lot of time encouraging other people to run and to get involved. We need good people in public service.”
Out to grab a coffee, you just might glimpse a bunch of buzzy young people at their standing desks or excitable gesticulation around a conference table. You can also see a screen in the window that lets you see how the congressman spends his time, like supporting a bill to get beyond Washington’s old-fashioned ways of doing things by allowing federal workers to use Uber and Lyft on official business.
To effect change, Moulton’s staff collaborated on making a video of one of their own, a young vet, as he attempts to navigate the antiquated phone system to book an appointment at the Veterans Affairs. The video went viral with more than a million views and helped Moulton gain support for the Faster Care for Veterans Act, a bill to help vets make medical appointments on their smartphones. “It’s the single most valuable thing we’ve done toward getting that legislation passed,” says Moulton. “Not because I explained it on the House floor, but they heard about it from their constituents who saw the video on the Internet.”
The young congressman sponsors a Facebook photo contest, displaying the winners on his wall, and writes his own tweets rather than relying on media consultants. Want to know how he feels about GMOs? Read explanations of his votes on the wildly popular site Medium. He wants you to know what he’s thinking, because it’s not always what you expect. He’s this and then he’s that, with a bipartisan take on things that helped him beat John Tierney, who held the seat for nearly 20 years.
Raised in Marblehead, Moulton, 37, is straight out of central casting with his square jaw and dark hair. After studying physics at Harvard, he served four tours as a Marine in Iraq because he thought the government was doing it wrong. He reluctantly ran for office, but now, up for re-election this November, he goes after his job with vigor.
“It’s the first job since I was a Marine where I feel I can serve people every day and make a difference in their lives,” he says.
Moulton is an accomplished organist who took a tour of the massive instruments in Europe while in college. A fan of the arts in his district, he decorated his Washington office with large maritime paintings and a bust of Washington himself, on loan from the Peabody Essex Museum. He’s proud that the artwork strikes up conversations about the place where his grandmother served as a docent.
During his first two years in office, the decorated Iraq war hero has made a name for himself on the House Armed Services Committee, making even more trips to the Middle East and then briefing military leaders on the fight against ISIS. His first trip to Cuba was on Air Force One with President Obama.
During his short time in office, Moulton has been named by the New York Times as one of the top Democrats to watch, and The Hill listed him as one of the 50 most beautiful people working in politics. He appeared on the front page of the New York Daily News holding an assault rifle. In an op-ed about gun violence, he wrote: “There’s simply no reason for a civilian to own a military-style assault weapon. It’s no different from why we outlaw civilian ownership of rockets and land-mines.”
Moulton’s only complaint about his job these days is fitting it all in, what with more than 700,000 constituents to represent and a grueling town meeting schedule in his communities. Other than making time to work out, he says, “I have almost no personal time whatsoever.”
That afternoon, he was off to host a roundtable in Burlington on innovative start-ups, but not before heading out with his young entourage to Salem City Hall to meet with Mayor Kim Driscoll.
Before leaving the buzz of the district office, I checked the congressman’s most recent Instagram post. It showed him standing with soldiers in the Middle East. “Our troops deserve a Commander-in-Chief who respects their service and their sacrifice.”
When asked if that person might one day be him, Moulton says, “I just want to do this job.”