At a glance, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is exactly the sort of Democrat who should be at risk of succumbing to an anti-establishment wave that has taken down a dozen incumbents this cycle, many of them older.Markey is 80 years old and has been in Congress longer than his opponent, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), has been alive. And he’s running in an environment that has at times favored younger upstarts — candidates who’ve been able to separate themselves from the damaged Democratic Party brand.So it’s not surprising that Moulton, the 47-year-old congressman who famously challenged Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) speakership, has attempted to make age a flashpoint in the race, accusing Markey of clinging to his seat “while the world passes him by” and calling for a new generation of leadership.
But there is another part of Markey’s biography that is likely to spare him from that trend on Tuesday, when Massachusetts voters head to the polls for one of the final primaries of the 2026 election cycle.Markey is a longtime progressive who has taken to quipping that his ideas are young, even if he is not. And polls show that primary voters care more about ideology than about how long Markey has been in Congress.In their primary matchup, Markey is comfortably ahead of Moulton by as much as 35 points — buoyed by an overwhelming majority of self-described liberal voters. Moulton, by contrast, has been dogged by the perception that he’s a centrist in a deep-blue state. He and Markey are aligned on most issues, but Moulton has squirmed over his past opposition to transgender athletes participating in girls’ sports. He also hasn’t gone as far as Markey on his support for government-run healthcare.“It’s a much more progressive electorate — your progressive bona fides are important,” said Tatishe Nteta, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the director of the UMass Poll.“If you look at Ed Markey on the campaign trail, you cannot help but notice every time he talks about two things: his support for the Green New Deal and Medicare for All,” Nteta added. “And what he’s doing is reminding voters here in Massachusetts of those progressive bona fides.”Markey, who is running for his third full term in the Senate, has reinforced that rhetoric with a spate of endorsements from progressive allies in Congress. On Saturday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and two Massachusetts colleagues, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), held a get-out-the-vote rally for Markey in Boston.It’s not that Markey isn’t vulnerable to attacks on his age. He played clean-up after musing that he wasn’t sure what software he uses on his iPad at their final debate. Moulton seized on the comment to accuse him of being tech-illiterate.“With all due respect, senator, if you don’t even know what you’re using on your phone or your iPad, like, this is why we need a new generation of leaders to regulate these technologies,” Moulton said.Still, polls show those attacks haven’t landed in the same way as they have for other Democrats running on a message of generational change. In neighboring Connecticut, the former mayor of Hartford was able to defeat 78-year-old Rep. John Larson (D-CT), a 14-term incumbent.Similar upsets have taken place in states ranging from Texas to Colorado to New York.Part of what makes Markey an apparent outlier is the ideological rift with Moulton. He is running at a time when the Democratic voting electorate has gravitated toward dyed-in-the-wool progressives and their disruptive brand of politics.Moulton, a six-term congressman, says there are “two progressives in this race” and has called for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a way to tap into that sentiment, but surveys show he’s still regarded in Massachusetts as more centrist.In cases where a progressive was unseated from their congressional seat this cycle, they were typically facing an equally liberal or outright socialist challenger.Moulton had an uphill battle against Markey from the outset of his campaign. Markey, who spent more than three decades in the House before his election to the Senate, is a generally popular incumbent, particularly among Democratic voters who will decide Tuesday’s primary election.A UMass poll released earlier this month found Markey had an 82% approval rating among self-identified Democrats and 56% of voters overall. That’s despite respondents most often labeling Markey “old” when asked for one word to describe him.It’s not the first time Markey has been in this situation. Six years ago, he faced a challenge from another younger Democrat: former Rep. Joe Kennedy, who lost by an 11-point margin — and that was with a more liberal reputation than Moulton.“We have already seen the argument about Ed Markey being too old, the need for generational change, and emphasizing his long tenure in the U.S. Congress, and that was articulated by a candidate who was viewed as a progressive, and not just a progressive, but a Kennedy … who does represent a new generation, and it didn’t work in 2020,” said Nteta, the University of Massachusetts professor.Apart from age, Moulton has attempted to tie Markey to Democratic leadership in the Senate and has found daylight to his left by announcing that he would oppose Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) if elected to the Senate.Markey is noncommittal on whether he would do the same, instead painting Moulton as beholden to special interests.EMBATTLED CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT TO STEP ASIDE AS DADS CAUCUS CHAIRMANThe attacks continue Moulton’s long-standing emphasis on generational change. He was among the first Democrats to call for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. He also led a House rebellion against Pelosi in 2018. She cruised to another term as speaker but, as a concession, agreed to limit her tenure and step down four years later.Markey, who would be 86 at the end of another term, has pledged not to run again in 2032.
