Days after Moulton announced his candidacy for president, a former campaign volunteer for Moulton’s 2014 Republican challenger said she would run as a Democrat for his seat. Other, better-known women in politics may follow. In an intriguing twist, Tierney supporters are encouraging him to win back the seat he lost to Moulton; at press time, he reportedly was considering it.
So what could Moulton possibly be getting out of a race he has so little chance of winning? And how could a moon-shot attempt be worth the very real risk of losing his congressional seat? Especially since the sixth district is the place where he has the opportunity to do what he says is so important to him: serve.
As I pondered this question, I called another person who, from his perch as an author and a magazine editor, had promoted the idea of a service revolution decades earlier. Like most people I spoke to, Charles Peters, the longtime editor of the Washington Monthly and a keen political observer, was highly skeptical that Moulton could win the nomination. But he saw something that would make the effort worth it. “I would love for the sacrificial lamb to come along and wage the fight” for service, Peters told me. “Because that’s the only way it’s going to get public attention—for someone, an appealing candidate, to adopt it as a cause.”