Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey easily won the state’s Democratic primary on Tuesday night, dispatching a younger and more moderate challenger in a significant victory for the party’s progressive wing.
Markey defeated Rep. Seth Moulton, a decorated veteran of the war in Iraq who had long been tipped as a rising star in the party but struggled to turn his potential into lasting political impact. Moulton, age 47, had made his comparative youth a major part of his campaign against Markey, who has served in Congress for nearly 50 years and will be 86 when his Senate term ends in 2032.
The race was shaping up as a blowout: With about half of the votes counted around 10:30 p.m. Eastern, Markey held a 65% to 35% lead over Moulton. Markey’s margin of victory was likely to easily surpass his performance in 2020, when he defeated former Rep. Joe Kennedy III in another primary centered around age and generational change.
Like in his race against Kennedy, the party’s progressive wing rallied behind Markey, a reliable liberal who has closely aligned with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and is known for his emphasis on combating climate change. Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) appeared together in a campaign ad for Markey.
While Markey’s victory is a clear win for the left, results elsewhere in Massachusetts did not present a clear narrative. Dan Koh, a former official in President Joe Biden’s administration who ran with the backing of Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, won the primary to replace Moulton in Congress.
Koh, who held senior non-editorial roles at HuffPost more than a decade ago, was considered the moderate option in the primary as progressives rallied behind state Rep. Tram Nguyen.
Two other races between younger progressives and veteran establishment members of the House remained too close to call.
Recent surveys had shown Markey pulling away from Moulton, who had won his seat in Congress more than a decade ago by successfully defeating Rep. John Tierney in a primary to win a seat representing the Boston suburbs on the state’s North Shore.
Moulton’s military credentials ― the Boston Globe once famously revealed he had actually underplayed his achievements ― made him a closely watched figure on Capitol Hill. But he made an ill-conceived challenge to then-Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi following the 2018 elections and followed it up with a flop of a presidential campaign in 2020.
Democratic voters’ anger and desire for generational change following the political failure of an octogenarian president seemingly gave Moulton a fresh opening to do what Kennedy could not six years earlier.
Moulton, however, was a rare candidate to mount a generational change challenge from the party’s center. While not an avowed centrist, Moulton is generally skeptical of the party’s far left and questioned whether Democrats’ stance in support of allowing transgender children to play sports cost the party the 2024 presidential election.
Markey and his allies pounced on those comments, using them to question whether Moulton would reliably stand up for progressive principles, and Moulton ultimately apologized for them.
“I am confident that because of this campaign, others will be inspired to buck the system when they are told to wait their turn,” Moulton said in a speech after he conceded to Markey.
Markey is set to face Republican John Deaton, an attorney closely associated with the cryptocurrency industry, in November. The race is considered safely Democratic.