Micah Q. Jones, a U.S. Army veteran and lawyer who describes his political journey as a transformation “from JFK Democrat to Common Sense Republican,” has joined the electoral fray in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District, which is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton.
Jones grew up in California and won a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan while in the U.S. Army. He moved to Massachusetts to attend law school at Northeastern University, and now lives with his wife and children in Essex.
Moulton, who served in the Marines, is challenging U.S. Sen. Ed Markey in next year’s Democratic primary. A slew of other Democrats are already vying to take his place, but Jones is the first Republican to enter the race.
Despite voting for President Donald Trump in 2020 and 2024, Jones is striking a decidedly nonpartisan tone as he kicks off his candidacy. In his campaign kickoff video, he states: “Our problems aren’t caused by Democrats or Republicans. They’re the result of career politicians in Washington who’ve forgotten working people and those striving towards the American dream.”
In that same video, Jones’s own party affiliation goes unmentioned.
Likewise, the biography on his campaign website notes that his mother is a Democrat and his father is a Republican, a biographical twist that calls to mind the family background of Charlie Baker, the former governor.
Also on his website, though, Jones describes leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent and then a registered Republican after “deal[ing] firsthand with the worst impulses of the Radical Left” while in law school.
In an interview with GBH News, after stressing his affection for Northeastern Law School as an institution, Jones highlighted two ways in which his experiences there changed his political convictions.
Jones’s father worked in the Los Angeles Police Department for 25 years, but among the political left at Northeastern, Jones recalled, “that support that I had for law enforcement was not there … the level of disdain for that type of service really shocked me.”
Jones also described working to found a veterans’ club at Northeastern and being “met with a lot of resistance,” even though the club’s intended focus was apolitical, e.g., helping veterans navigate the G.I. Bill and the V.A. benefits process.
As a Democrat, Jones said, he embraced John F. Kennedy’s conviction that America can and should be a force for good in the world, and that both military force and “soft power” such as the Peace Corps can help attain that end.
Now, Jones said, his current identity as a “common sense Republican” means “a focus on individual rights and families, a focus on fiscal responsibility, and a focus on a robust foreign policy.” He cited former governors Mitt Romney, Bill Weld and Charlie Baker, as well as current state Sen. Bruce Tarr, as political role models. If elected, he says he would prioritize lowering costs and reducing outmigration from the state.
Jones, who has not previously held elected office, also said he would work to implement term limits and ban the trading of individual stocks for members of Congress if he joins the House.
“To me, those are bipartisan issues,” Jones said. “That’s about bringing the country together, it’s about turning down the temperature, and focusing on things we can get done and move forward and make the country a better place for everyone.”
Jones is Jewish and identifies as a staunch supporter of Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship, which he says helps advance America’s pro-democracy agenda overseas.
He calls the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7 “the worst day for Israel and the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” and says of Israel’s subsequent military response in Gaza, “I think that Israel has intended to fight the most careful and just war that they could … I think it’s hard for us in the west to contemplate just how entrenched [Hamas was] in society and really using, I think, innocent Palestinians as shields.”
The Massachusetts congressional delegation is currently comprised entirely of Democrats. No Republican has represented Massachusetts in the House since Peter Torkildsen and Peter Blute’s congressional tenures ended in early 1997, though Scott Brown did serve as a Republican Senator from 2010 to 2012.
Jones contends that it’s an absence that hurts the state when Republicans control the government.
“I really do think Massachusetts suffers when we have an entire congressional delegation that’s only represented by one party,” he said. “And I think that we need to have multiple voices in our congressional delegation because we need to be able to work with whatever administration’s in charge, whether it’s Democrats or Republicans.”
Correction: This article has been updated to include Scott Brown’s Senate tenure in the U.S. Senate.
