Ed Markey has won the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary, defeating 47-year-old Congressman Seth Moulton and overcoming a campaign centred on his age and the need for generational change.
The victory on Tuesday, September 1, secures an expected third full term for Mr Markey, 80, who has represented Massachusetts in Congress since 1976. In the heavily Democratic state, he is the overwhelming favourite to win November’s general election and could remain in the Senate until at least the age of 86.
Mr Moulton, a moderate Democrat and former Marine who represents the state’s North Shore, had argued that voters should replace what he called the party’s “status quo”. He repeatedly questioned what Mr Markey could achieve in another six-year term after five decades in public office.
But Mr Markey’s progressive record proved more powerful than his opponent’s appeal for renewal. He secured the backing of figures including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while presenting himself as the candidate most closely aligned with the state’s Democratic electorate.
A final Emerson College poll conducted shortly before the vote showed Mr Markey leading Mr Moulton by 60 per cent to 33 per cent. It also found Mr Markey ahead among voters under 40, suggesting that the age issue had failed to create the generational divide Mr Moulton had hoped for.
Markey’s progressive platform defeats age challenge
Mr Moulton’s campaign focused heavily on Mr Markey’s long tenure, including a debate exchange in which the senator said he did not know whether he used artificial intelligence in his work. Mr Moulton said the moment demonstrated that his opponent was out of touch with a rapidly changing world.
Mr Markey responded by arguing that experience mattered less than political direction. He highlighted his climate legislation and attacked Mr Moulton’s opposition to Medicare for All, while portraying the younger candidate as too moderate for Massachusetts Democrats.
The contest also became a test of how Democratic voters would respond to Mr Moulton’s earlier comments about transgender girls competing in girls’ sport. He had said after the 2024 election that he did not want his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete”.
Mr Markey accused him of throwing transgender children “under the bus”. Mr Moulton apologised for causing hurt but maintained that his underlying concerns were legitimate. He later stressed his support for other transgender rights measures.
Mr Markey, a longtime resident of Malden, had already demonstrated his ability to defeat a younger challenger when he saw off Joseph P Kennedy III in the 2020 Democratic primary. That result ended a long record of electoral success for the Kennedy family in Massachusetts politics.
Earlier this year, Mr Markey also won the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s endorsement, receiving nearly 73 per cent of convention delegates to Mr Moulton’s 27 per cent. The result reinforced his advantage among party activists before the primary campaign moved to the wider electorate.
Mr Markey will face Republican John Deaton in the November election. Mr Deaton, a lawyer who also ran for the Senate in 2024, was unopposed in the Republican primary but lost that year’s contest to Ms Warren by a wide margin.
