Photo credit: Ed Markey for U.S. Senate
By BallotWire
09/01/2026
The Wire: Sen. Ed Markey decisively defeated Rep. Seth Moulton in Tuesday's Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary, winning by nearly two to one and turning aside a challenge built explicitly around his age.
Why it counts: In a cycle that has seen a string of veteran Democrats ousted by younger challengers, the 80-year-old Markey delivered the sharpest counterexample yet. His primary was the party's most direct referendum on generational change, and the incumbent won it.
The margin: Markey took 64.8% to Moulton's 35.2%, with the AP calling the race shortly after polls closed. The result nearly tripled his roughly 11-point margin over Joe Kennedy III in 2020.
The fine print: Markey ran as a leader of the party's progressive wing and reactivated the young, online "Markeyverse" coalition that saved him in 2020. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders backed him, along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, while Moulton's endorsement list stayed thin. Moulton's bid also absorbed a late blow when The American Prospect published an investigation, amplified by Markey's campaign, alleging he made millions through private business dealings while serving on the House Armed Services Committee.
On the record: Markey called the win a "testament to the power of the progressive movement," crediting young people demanding more from their leaders.
The counter: Moulton, 47, made generational turnover the whole argument, contending that Markey should step aside for a new generation rather than serve another six-year term into his mid-80s, and comparing the moment to Joe Biden's 2024 exit. "It's time for a new generation of leadership," he said in launching the campaign. In conceding, he pledged to help Markey win in November.
The backdrop: Markey is the oldest senator Massachusetts has ever elected and the oldest Senate Democrat seeking reelection this year, first sent to Congress in 1976 and to the Senate in a 2013 special election after John Kerry became Secretary of State. His win bucks a national pattern in which incumbents like Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Diana DeGette fell to younger primary challengers this year.
Looking ahead: Markey faces Republican John Deaton, a cryptocurrency attorney who ran unopposed and lost a 2024 Senate bid to Warren, in November. He enters heavily favored in a state that has not elected a Republican to the Senate since Scott Brown in 2010.