U.S. Sen. Ed Markey rolls to victory in Mass. Democratic primary

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U.S. Sen. Ed Markey cruised to a decisive victory in Massachusetts’ Democratic primary against U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, as voters soundly rejected the Salem congressman’s effort to turn the race into a referendum on Markey’s age.

In unofficial results on Tuesday night, Markey secured roughly 70% among Democratic primary voters to Moulton’s 30%.

It marked the second consecutive race in which Markey turned back a primary challenge from a younger member of the state’s congressional delegation. Six years ago, it was 39-year-old Joe Kennedy III who failed to make the case for generational change. This time, with Markey turning 80 during the heat of the primary campaign, it was the 47-year old Moulton who waged an ultimately losing bet that the senator had finally worn out his stay.

Moulton launched his campaign last October with a simple pitch — it was time to pass the torch.

Moulton, a Marine veteran who served four tours in Iraq, argued that it was time for a generational change in leadership and that he would bring fresh energy to the fight against President Trump and his agenda.

Markey pointed to his authorship of the Green New Deal, consistent progressive bona fides, and said he had never felt more energized about a campaign. He insisted repeatedly that it was not your age but the age of your ideas that was important, and then pointed to his long record of progressive policy battles.

Every public poll of the race showed Markey comfortably ahead.

After the candidates met for their first debate on July 8, the numbers barely wavered. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll found a majority of voters already leaning Markey by mid-August. A WBUR/UMass Amherst survey days later had him up nearly 30 points. The final Emerson College poll in late August put Markey at 60% to Moulton’s 33%. Women and voters under 40 — the exact voters Moulton needed to peel away — broke hardest for Markey, Emerson’s pollster said.

On policy, there was often little daylight between them — a point both men conceded across three debates.

Both called themselves the true progressive in the race and both back universal health care, though not the same version. Markey has embraced Medicare for All, a single-payer system, while Moulton favors a public option that would let a government plan compete alongside private insurers. Markey has also stayed tied to the Green New Deal, which he co-authored.

A major point of contention throughout the race was Moulton’s comments about transgender athletes shortly after President Trump’s 2024 victory, in which he talked about not wanting his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.” That prompted an apology from Moulton on the debate stage with Markey, and the incumbent senator accusing the congressman of “throwing trans kids under the bus.”

Markey’s sound win on Tuesday further signals that voters found him to be the unalloyed progressive, with Moulton’s comments around trans issues dogging him throughout the race.

Almost all of Markey’s fellow Massachusetts Democrats in Washington closed ranks, with six of the state’s eight House members and Sen. Elizabeth Warren endorsing him. Only Reps. Stephen Lynch and Jake Auchincloss stayed neutral, the Boston Globe reported.

Moulton’s most notable institutional counterweight came from The Boston Globe, which endorsed him over Markey. He also leaned on fellow veterans-turned-politicians who he helped elect nationally, including New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill.

Throughout the campaign, Markey cited his work with progressive star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was a prominent Markey backer against Kennedy in 2020. She held off on endorsing this time before backing him in the race’s final week.

Moulton had unseated an incumbent before, beating then-Rep. John Tierney in 2014. But his recent efforts to crack the party’s upper echelons and comments on trans young people in sports gave Markey’s allies ammunition to paint him as a striver out of step with Massachusetts priorities. In 2018, Moulton waged a failed attempt to block Nancy Pelosi from the speakership, and he made a short-lived 2020 presidential run.

Markey is a heavy favorite in November against Republican John Deaton, a Marine veteran and cryptocurrency attorney who lost to Sen. Elizabeth Warren by about 20 points in 2024. Massachusetts hasn’t sent a Republican to the Senate since Scott Brown’s 2010 special-election win. Brown’s DC tenure was brief. Two years later, Warren defeated him.