Seth Moulton drops out of presidential race
Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton is ending his presidential campaign, becoming the third candidate in the past week to drop out of the race. Moulton had not qualified for any of the debates held by the Democratic National Committee.
CBS News political correspondent Ed O'Keefe reports Moulton will instead run for reelection. He is set to formally announce his decision Friday afternoon at the DNC's summer meeting in San Francisco.
In prepared remarks of Moulton's speech to the Democratic party, the congressman is expected to say that he is leaving the race "knowing that we raised issues that are vitally important to the American people and our future."
Moulton will also be relaunching his organization, Serve America—which helped flip the House in 2018 by electing 21 service-driven Democrats in competitive districts across the country — "to work with all of you to keep the House, to flip the Senate, and to win back statehouses across the country next November," Moulton is to announce.
He said he's also expecting to campaign for whoever wins the nomination in 2020.
Moulton's abrupt decision to leave the race was first reported by The New York Times. Moulton told the Times he had no immediate plans to endorse a candidate and said he believed only three candidates had the potential to become the Democratic nominee.
"I think it's evident that this is now a three-way race between Biden, Warren and Sanders, and really it's a debate about how far left the party should go," Moulton told the Times.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee and former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper announced that they were dropping out of the race earlier this week. Inslee will run for reelection, and Hickenlooper will run for Senate in Colorado.
