Did Seth Moulton Drop Out of the Presidential Race Because Elizabeth Warren Bailed on His 2017 Wedding?

Representative Seth Moulton, a man you probably didn’t know was running for president, announced on Friday that he will no longer be running for president. The Massachusetts congressman entered the 2020 race relatively late (April), and his centrist campaign never got much traction. But did he drop out for reasons beyond poor numbers and having a kind of alienating haircut? Let’s consider it.

In June, U.S. News covered Moulton debating Elizabeth Warren—but because he didn’t qualify for the first presidential debates, he had to do this through a television screen at a rental in Miami. The myriad of policy differences between the two certainly jumped out, but also buried in the piece was a juicy morsel of gossip:

His relationship with Warren, though, is more complicated, given they are Bay State colleagues.

When Moulton got married in 2017, Warren RSVP’d – then canceled last minute, a decision that still seems to irk him.

“She sent a very lovely card,” notes Matt Corridoni, Moulton’s press secretary.

Vanity Fair, naturally, covered this with relish:

Then there’s Warren’s excuse and whether it was meaningful. Martha Stewart Weddings said a canceler should “Have a Meaningful Excuse.” So what was up with her? Was she sick? Did weather prevent her from getting back to New England in time? In the days leading up to the wedding was she prepping for another go at Wells Fargo executives, and deflecting a super PAC that had just been formed to fight her 2020 bid? It doesn’t sound like a good enough excuse for Martha Stewart.

Now, is it the fact that Moulton never broke through an already crowded field of primary candidates and was likely running very low on campaign funds that caused him to reconsider his bid for the presidency? Perhaps! Or Perhaps Moulton is the type to hold on to a grudge about a wedding that happened two years ago! Or maybe he’s so full of rage from Warren’s rejection that the thought of competing against her is so unbearable that he knew he had to get out while he was still polling at subzero!

While Moulton hasn’t endorsed a candidate yet, a New York Times report suggests that he’s not feeling great about the popularity of a candidate like Warren:

[Moulton] warned in the interview that if Democrats were to embrace an overly liberal platform, it could make it harder for the party to defeat President Trump.

“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,” Mr. Moulton said.

Well, that sure reads like a confirmation to me! He’s still bitter as hell about that wedding!