In the run-up to the Sept. 1 Democratic primary, state Rep. Tram Nguyen seemed to have built up a massive amount of momentum in her bid for Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District seat currently held by Rep. Seth Moulton.
Nguyen was racking up big endorsements left and right, including from the Boston Globe editorial board, Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Lori Trahan, as well as Mariah Lancaster, a onetime rival who dropped out of the race and urged her supporters to back Nguyen instead.
All those vocal backers didn’t help her prevail over the eventual winner, Dan Koh, who wasn’t pulling in last-minute endorsements like Nguyen.
However, Koh had a big financial advantage, as well as two longstanding but noteworthy endorsements of his own: one from President Joe Biden and another from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Koh got to know both while serving two-and-a-half years in the Biden White House as deputy cabinet secretary, deputy director of intergovernmental affairs and senior advisor to the vice president.
It’s impossible to say whether Koh would have beaten Nguyen without the Biden and Harris endorsements. Still, it’s significant that, in a campaign cycle that saw several alums of the Biden Administration work to distance themselves from the president, Koh embraced that connection and won, touting it in TV ads and on social media and his campaign website.
Koh told GBH News in an interview that he never considered minimizing his ties to the Biden Administration, despite the fact that both Biden and Harris remain unpopular with voters nationally.
“Of course there were people who were concerned and didn’t want me to [stress those connections],” he said. “But ... I’m proud to have served for President Biden and Vice President Harris.
“It’s part of who I am,” he added. “It’s part of my work experience, and I’m not going to run away from that, because I think the policies that were achieved there — like lowering prescription drug prices or the Inflation Reduction Act, the best climate bill in the history of the world — were things to be proud of. And so I knew that was something I wanted to talk about, because those policies I don’t think are talked about enough.”
Koh said his own campaign’s analysis showed that Biden and Harris’ favorability ratings among primary voters in the 6th
Congressional District were actually quite high, despite the fact that both are unpopular nationally.
“Our data had Joe Biden at 83% favorable in this primary, which obviously played out,” he said. “But even if you look at independent data of where the [former] vice president is among Democrats nationally, she’s in the 80s in terms of approval ratings.
“Was the administration perfect? Absolutely not,” Koh said. “But I do believe the numbers prove that people have a lot of respect and admiration for the work that both of them have done for our country, and I’m proud to have served.”
The Sixth Congressional District, which comprises the northeastern corner of Massachusetts, voted heavily for Biden over Trump in 2024, though a handful of communities did back the Republican nominee.
In the general election, Koh will face veteran and lawyer Micah Q. Jones. In an interview with GBH News, Jones congratulated Koh on his victory — the two have gotten to know each other on the campaign trail, Jones said — but also indicated that he sees Koh’s ties to Biden and Harris as a political opportunity.
“I think that those endorsements, both by President Biden and Vice President Harris, kind of summarize where I think the key difference is between Dan and me as the general election begins,” Jones said. “And that’s really focused on where our focus lies. I think Dan is really focused on national issues; I do not think he’s focused on the Massachusetts 6th Congressional District, and I think that’s the opposite in the case of my campaign. ... I am hyper-focused on the district.”
Koh clearly seems inclined to keep the reminders of his years in the Biden-Harris White House coming as the general election unfolds. He’s made fighting what he calls President Donald Trump’s ongoing assault on democracy the core of his campaign pitch.
“I think if you compare what [Trump] is doing — taking away rights from people, murdering Americans on the streets with his ICE — and you compare that to the bipartisan proposal that Joe Biden helped shepherd in terms of securing our borders, having more judges for asylum claims … taking care of our Dreamers, I think it’s clear what compassionate, effective policy looks like and brutalist dictatorship policy looks like,” Koh told GBH News Wednesday. “And I think that contrast can and should be clear.”
Koh didn’t directly answer when asked if Biden and Harris might campaign with him this fall. But he did say that the first four people he heard from after his victory Tuesday were Biden, Harris, and their respective spouses.
