The last time Rep. Jake Auchincloss was in a primary for a seat in the U.S. 4th District was 2020, when, at age 32, he was one of nine relative newcomers competing for the seat being vacated by Joe Kennedy III. Now, at 38, he’s the veteran Democratic incumbent challenged by another newcomer, Jason Poulos, as the Sept. 1 Election Day nears.
The surge of primaries in the Democratic party has come largely from the left, including members of the Democratic Socialists of America — which is OK with Auchincloss. The primaries have opened a debate, he said in a telephone interview, one which he welcomes.
“I think there is a lot of consternation about those debates, but I don’t think the Democrats should shy away from them,” he said. “Debates are signs of a healthy party. What’s not a sign of a healthy party is the cult of personality that the GOP has become. The GOP doesn’t have internal debates. They’re not allowed to. They have a Dear Leader.”
In the course of a conversation, Auchincloss showed why he appreciates debate — he’s apparently good at it. He pushed back at the suggestion that the new crop of candidates might be onto something. “I have a DSA opponent,” he said, “and I intend to win that debate and that election.”
Plus, he maintains that Democratic voters feeling frustrated or even desperate might find that positions he has taken are more in line with the left than they realize.
Redistribution of wealth? “I just reject the fact that the DSA has a monopoly on that point of view. I would say their policy proposals are much less effective than the ones I have been proposing for years — years. For example, closing the ‘buy, borrow, die’ loophole that billionaires use to allow their heirs to inherit hundreds of millions of dollars tax-free. We’ve got to close that.” Changing the inheritance laws, he said, would effectively create a national wealth tax. “I’ve been advocating for that for years.”
Affordable housing? Auchincloss supports the Massachusetts Legalize Starter Homes ballot initiative which will override some local zoning regulations and allow single family homes on small lots. “The second big thing that we can do to reverse the wealth gap is housing production. Enormous amounts of wealth are captured through zoning and land use restrictions that allow older Americans to see their home values appreciate while younger Americans can’t afford to get that first rung on the ladder by buying their first home.” He also supports the low-income housing tax credit, and said that it is his policy as a representative to deliver earmarks only to cities and towns in his district that comply with the MBTA Communities Act (for Auchincloss, that means Rehobeth and Freetown do not benefit from earmarks).
“Those two levers together — closing the buy, borrow, die loophole and building more housing are enormously impactful ways to reverse the wealth pump that has existed in this country for the last 50 years. And I’ve been advocating for those for years.”
In conversation, Auchincloss takes advantage of some of the most extreme positions that DSA or far-left candidates have taken, though the policies of those who have actually won an election have generally been more moderate. “Abolishing prisons? I certainly don’t support that.”
He is, however, certain that ICE needs reform or replacement. “I think ICE has morphed from an arm of the law into an instrument of fear — it really has mushroomed into a presidential paramilitary. It needs to be battled at every turn. I have refused to vote to fund one iota of ICE operations. I support legislation that would reform from the roots of a broken agency.” If necessary, he said, ICE should be replaced. “We do need interior immigration enforcement, but if ICE isn’t fit for purpose, then we need a different organization.”
In Massachusetts, Auchincloss indicated, there has been another form of federal attack on residents: the cutbacks in research funding. In June, Auchincloss told a Needham audience that “What RFK Jr. and his henchmen have been doing over the last 18 months through a combination of grift, incompetence and anti-vax conspiracy [is] undermining both our democracy and our economy in Massachusetts.”
Economic analysis says 40% of all wages in the state are either directly or indirectly supported by R&D funding, he said. (Indirect refers to the money that biotech companies and employees spend in their communities). Auchincloss calls for expanding the NIH, which has been depleted and defunded by the current Congress and administration. “Eds and Meds is the engine of the Massachusetts economy, and NIH is like the fuel injector to that engine. The $2 billion in NIH grants that Massachusetts gets paid out 10X in terms of economic output.”
Auchincloss’s primary opponent, Jason Poulos, comes from the AI world and warns of its potential impact on jobs. Auchincloss takes the Jiu-Jitsu approach: become a leader in using AI responsibly. “I think the big opportunity for Massachusetts is to be the responsible adopter of enterprise AI in the eds and meds ecosystem. I think the rest of the country would look at Massachusetts doing this and say, ‘Huh, OK, these guys know how to do eds and meds well. We’re seeing them do it now with AI.’” He knew of a recent paper in Nature that showed how AI could help predict the likelihood of success for Phase 2 drug trials, making investments in drug development much more efficient.
That said, he points to the technology’s dangers — and the dangers of its social media cousins. “The biggest thing that I worry about with AI is epistemological: AI’s role in distorting our sense of truth. The overarching story to me of the last 25 years is a decline of trust. It’s a decline of trust between people, interpersonal trust and societal trust, and a decline of trust between people and their government.”
“I look at someone like (Meta’s Mark) Zuckerberg as one of the most destructive forces in American politics and society over the last 20 years. We can all remember him, he struts out on stage, he says, ‘Hey, we’re gonna connect the world and everyone’s gonna be friends.’ I don’t think it really turned out that way.”
Such businesses can stand between users and the truth. And they are “not incentivized to report truth, they are incentivized to keep people engaged. And those are two very different things.”
With all of Auchincloss’s comprehensive answers, he can also sum things up in a few words. Asked what he thinks his mandate is for the people in his congressional district, he declared it’s really just two things: defend the rule of law and lower prices. And asked how a 38-year-old husband and father of three small children can find the time to keep up on what’s in Nature along with all of the other obligations and responsibilities of office, he only needed a single word: “Grandparents.”
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