Massachusetts congressman is a long-shot for the nomination and may struggle to stand out in a field, 19-strong and expanding

The Massachusetts congressman Seth Moulton has jumped into the race for the White House.

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The decorated Marine Corp veteran and Harvard graduate announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday morning.

Drawing on his military service and youth, Moulton, 40, will portray himself as a foil to Donald Trump, who received multiple deferments from service during the Vietnam war for bone spurs. The Moulton campaign will call for a new approach to national security, defense and foreign policy.

In a video released on Monday, he said: “I’m running because we have to beat Donald Trump, and I want us to beat Donald Trump because I love this country. We’ve never been a country that gets everything right. But we’re a country that, at our best, thinks that we might. I’d be honored if you’d join me in this mission.”

Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) I’m running for President to build a strong and safe country, create the jobs of the future, and elect leaders we can be proud of. Join our mission: https://t.co/9caxN9579q. https://t.co/Pyr6IRNq5e

Still, the congressman is a long-shot for the nomination and may struggle to distinguish himself in a field, 19-strong and expanding, which includes three members of Congress, two veterans, multiple candidates under 40 and a number of senators, among them Elizabeth Warren, who is from Moulton’s own state. Former vice-president Joe Biden, who has made clear that foreign policy and national security will be central to his campaign, is expected to enter the race this week.

Moulton will also be up against other relative upstarts: Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is a navy veteran who has surged in polling. Moulton advisers argue that Buttigieg’s success shows a hunger for new leadership.

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The Democrat will launch his campaign with a trip to New Hampshire, a 45-minute drive from his home in Salem, Massachusetts. He has spent significant time in the early voting state, campaigning for other candidates for office and addressing veterans groups. He will then tour other states which hold primaries or caucuses early, including Iowa, South Carolina, California and Nevada.

Elected to the House in 2014 after ousting a longtime incumbent, Moulton has made calls for new leadership part of his personal brand. He spent 2018 campaigning and raising money for veteran candidates through his Serve America Pac. After Democrats won the House, he helped lead an unsuccessful effort to stop Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker.

Moulton has joined a handful of other candidates in calling for reforms supported by progressives such as the abolition of the electoral college and the Senate filibuster, which would allow bills to pass the upper chamber with a simple majority. But his White House run will be focused on national security, an issue he believes Democrats can lead on, given Trump’s erratic displays on the international stage.

He has called for a “cyber wall” rather than a border wall with Mexico and rethinking engagement with Nato allies.

In a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington earlier this year, Moulton compared Trump’s foreign policy to burning a house to the ground. Democrats, he said, needed “next-generation thinking” to completely rebuild, not simply restore, an approach that meets 21st-century challenges.

Moulton completed four tours in Iraq. In 2014, he told the Boston Globe: “The greatest honor of my life was to lead these men in my platoon, even though it was a war that I and they disagreed with.”

