Rep. Seth Moulton says Democrats lack leadership, plans, during campaign stop at Brady’s in Leominster

LEOMINSTER — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D–6th Congressional District), who is running for the U.S. Senate, said the Democratic Party needs new leadership “from the top down” and that he would not vote for Chuck Schumer to continue leading Senate Democrats during an appearance at Brady’s Restaurant in Leominster on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

“From the beginning of this campaign I said that I am not going to vote for Senator Schumer to be the leader of our party in the Senate, we need new leadership from the top down,” Rep. Moulton said from a podium in an intimate dining area, jam-packed with around 30 area residents from Leominster, Westminster, Princeton, and Lunenburg, among other municipalities. “It is also why I have been fighting to expand the Democratic ranks all across the county…It is not enough just to resist Trump, we’ve got to lead and we have win. We’ve got to win back the House, we have to win back the Senate.”

Moulton’s Senate bid has drawn national attention because he is challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Ed Markey—who defeated Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the 2020 Democratic primary—setting up a high-stakes, high-profile contest between Moulton, 47, and Markey, 79, that Moulton has framed as a push for generational change in party leadership.

At Brady’s, Rep. Moulton said during his speech that the Democratic Party needs leaders who can actually fight and take on Trump and the MAGA Republicans for what they are doing today, citing immigration enforcement as one example.

“ICE is terrorizing our communities, we have seen what they can do in Massachusetts, but we haven’t seen the full onslaught yet,” Rep. Moulton said. He added that he was one of the original co-sponsors of the NOEM Act—the National Oversight and Enforcement of Misconduct Act—a bill which would allow victims to sue federal immigration enforcement officers for constitutional violations. Moulton then said that Kristi Noem, who heads up the Department of Homeland Security, “is completely out of control,” before taking questions from the audience.

Jane Morrison of Princeton, who was one of the first members of the audience to ask Moulton a question said, “Everything you do now, there is an AI chatbot that wants to talk to you. They are forcing you to use AI on social media. I don’t think it is ready for prime time, and I want to see limits on AI. I also want to see videos and things like that that have AI content labeled, so we know it is AI and we don’t have to guess whether or not it is real.”

Rep. Moulton responded stating, “I think we need regulations on this, but Congress is a bit behind. We’re just now talking about regulating social media because we have opened up to the fact that it is bad for our kids, and social media is about 21 years old. This is another example of how the old guard is just not getting it done. We should be regulating this stuff.”

Moulton added, “The Republicans have a very clear AI policy. It’s very simple: it says we are going to do whatever the AI executives want. Now you might not agree with that policy, I don’t agree with it, but at least it’s a policy. We don’t even have a policy as a party.”