Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., defeated Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., in Tuesday’s Democratic Senate primary, securing his party’s nomination for a third full term. The Associated Press called the race for Markey less than an hour after polls closed.
Markey, who has represented Massachusetts in Congress for nearly five decades, held off a challenge built around generational turnover by campaigning explicitly on his progressive record, including his continued support for transgender athletes’ participation in sports.
“Trans athletes should be able to play,” Markey told The New York Times. “That reflects Massachusetts and who we are. And Seth Moulton does not.”
That position has become a flashpoint nationally, with Republicans using it as a campaign issue and many Democrats avoiding the topic as they work to win back majorities in Congress. Moulton argued the issue had cost Democrats support in the 2024 elections.
“I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” Moulton said.
Massachusetts has not sent a Republican to the Senate since 2013, when Scott Brown lost to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Given that history, Markey’s stance on the issue is unlikely to threaten his prospects in the general election.
The primary win also represents a victory for the party’s progressive wing. Markey, a co-author of the Green New Deal resolution, was backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
The result runs counter to a broader push within the Democratic Party for generational change, a movement that gained momentum after former President Joe Biden’s troubled bid for a second term. Some longtime incumbents have lost this cycle, including Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., 78, who was defeated by Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 47. But Markey, at 80, withstood Moulton’s argument that it was time for new leadership.
It is not the first time an insurgent candidate has failed to unseat Markey. In 2020, he defeated former Rep. Joe Kennedy III in a primary that similarly turned on questions of generational succession in the Senate.
