The Corporate Dem Asking Super PACs To Call Him a Progressive
In the race to secure the Democratic ticket for Massachusetts’ upcoming Senate race, Rep. Seth Moulton has put out a not-so-subtle call for ads targeting “voters under 40” highlighting that he’s “one of Massachusetts’ rising progressive stars” and a “next generation progressive fighter who supports abolishing ICE, taxing the rich and health care for all.”
Beyond raising legal questions about prohibited coordination between campaigns and outside groups, the brazen appeal is a reinvention for a six-term congressman who said last year that progressive populism is “great for Democrats if we want to continue losing.”
A review of Moulton’s donors, investments, and voting record also suggests his new branding is at odds with his political history. Progressive standard bearers say Moulton’s pivot is an example of establishment Democrats attempting to capitalize on their base’s leftward shift and fool voters into supporting them over actual progressive candidates.
“We’ve seen this in the wake of Sen. [Bernie] Sanders’ presidential campaigns, where you have a lot of establishment consulting firms or elected officials painting themselves with that brush in an effort to appeal to progressive voters, but it’s a smokescreen,” said Robert Dempsey, national political director of Our Revolution, a progressive organization founded as a continuation of Sanders’ (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign. “It’s not real. It’s disingenuous, and voters see right through that.”
Moulton, who has represented the congressional district just north of Boston for 11 years, has raked in more than $1.7 million in campaign donations from private equity, Wall Street, healthcare industry, and tech donors this election cycle. What’s more, a Wall Street-funded super PAC supporting Moulton has spent at least $5.4 million boosting his campaign and opposing incumbent candidate Sen. Ed Markey, according to news outlet Sludge.
A Lever analysis of Moulton’s voting records also shows that he has routinely voted to pass legislation favorable to the cryptocurrency industry, continue weapons sales to Israel amid the genocide in Gaza, and extend warrantless surveillance of Americans’ communications in 2024. He has since flipped his positions on Israel aid and warrantless surveillance. The congressman also faced recent scrutiny over his investments in nonpublic companies with federal contracts.
Additionally, he made disparaging comments about trans athletes, telling The New York Times in November 2024 that he doesn’t want his two daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.” He has since apologized for the comment.
In comparison, Markey, Moulton’s opponent, coauthored the Green New Deal and has the backing of prominent progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Markey also cosponsored a bill in 2025 that would close a tax loophole exploited by private equity and hedge fund managers to avoid taxes on certain types of compensation. (According to Sludge, Moulton has never cosponsored such private equity tax reforms.)
Despite how Moulton would like outside spending groups to depict him, his voting record and campaign donors are telling “Massachusetts voters exactly who he is,” said Cam Charbonnier, Markey’s campaign manager.
“Seth Moulton’s election-year reinvention as a progressive would be laughable if it weren’t so cynical,” Charbonnier told The Lever. “After years of positioning himself as a corporate-friendly moderate and attacking the progressive movement, he is now being propped up by millions from corporate PACs, private equity investors, and wealthy financiers.”
The Moulton campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The Thin Red Line
On Monday, August 24, Moulton’s “Media Info” page was updated with a message, framed in red, stating that “Likely Primary Election voters across Massachusetts… need to see on TV, cable and especially digital that after 50 years in Washington, Ed Markey decided to run again — at 80, for a six-year term — rather than pass the torch to one of Massachusetts’ rising progressive stars.”
The message also includes links to media-friendly photos and video B-roll of Moulton.
A screen capture from South Moulton’s “Media Info” page from August 27, 2026.
The note might seem puzzling to the average voter perusing Moulton’s website, but experts say the message is an example of a legally dubious campaign finance loophole used by campaigns and political action committees to skirt campaign finance laws barring the two entities from coordinating.
The tactic, called “redboxing,” involves a campaign posting video footage, demographic targets, and messaging on its website in hopes that an outside group runs advertising amplifying the message. In this instance, Advance Progress, a super PAC largely funded by private equity interests that is supporting Moulton, has run at least two ads, featuring materials posted on Moulton’s website. The ads call on Markey to “pass the torch” to Moulton, “the kind of progressive Democrat we need now” who’ll “take on ICE and make billionaires pay their fair share.”
Beyond the tactic raising legal questions, it is part of a “troubling trend” by super PACs, dark money groups, and wealthy donors to influence elections, said Shanna Ports, senior legal counsel for ethics at the campaign watchdog Campaign Legal Center.
“[Redboxing] runs the risk of the candidate becoming beholden to the donors who are supporting that ad, and those donors don’t necessarily represent the views of the American public,” Ports told The Lever. “This trend the [Federal Election Commission] has of not policing coordination drowns out the voice of everyday voters, and that’s why this is really troubling to see this much coordination happening and to see super PACs and the special interest donors behind them almost become like an integrated part of candidates’ campaigns.”
The 2022 midterms saw more than 200 candidates use this tactic, and many candidates in the current midterm election cycle have also employed the strategy.
Moulton’s own PACs have received funding from other individuals working in hedge funds and venture capital firms, as well as from PACs affiliated with weapons contractors RTX, Honeywell, and Leidos.
He has also received more than $54,000 from individuals and PACs affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying and campaign donation group, according to campaign watchdog OpenSecrets. Candidates’ willingness to accept AIPAC donations has become a core issue for many progressive voters because of the group’s support for Israel’s ongoing military actions in Palestine.
These campaign donations and Moulton’s voting record make him unfit to call himself a progressive, said Jonathan Cohn, policy director with the statewide grassroots organization Progressive Mass.
“Seth has done a fascinating job of trying to rebrand himself as progressive this cycle,” Cohn told The Lever. “[Moulton] doesn’t ever really actually hit on the big problem over the past few decades of the Democratic Party’s movement away from thinking about how the government can positively intervene to improve people’s everyday lives.”
Cohn said that progressive candidates need to support core issues at the center of the progressive movement, like taxing the rich and providing universal public services, such as Medicare for All. Dempsey, with Our Revolution, added that progressive candidates need to support increasing the minimum wage, expanding union protections, and holding people in power accountable.
Dempsey said that if Moulton wants to call himself a progressive, then he needs to support reining in “out-of-control spending” by the Defense Department and getting money out of politics.
“I wouldn’t hold out a lot of hope for that, seeing how he has benefited greatly from the dark money spending that we see dominating American politics now,” Dempsey said. “It’s really frustrating to see moderate corporate Democrats call themselves progressives in an attempt to fool voters.”
Freddy is a reporter and has been published in the Los Angeles Times, NBC News, CalMatters, the Lost Coast Outpost, and more. Send tips via Signal: freddy_brewster.64
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