House Democrat Moulton to Challenge Markey in Senate Primary in Massachusetts

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton is challenging his fellow Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Ed Markey in next year’s Senate primary in a race that could shape up to be a bellwether over the direction of the Democrat Party. 

“Our party has clung to the status quo, insisted on using the same old playbook, and isn’t fighting hard enough. The next generation will keep paying the cost if we don’t change course,” Moulton said in his campaign announcement video. 

At 46, Moulton is widely seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, with broad appeal as both the holder of two master’s degrees from Harvard University and a former Marine Corps officer who served in the Iraq War. Moulton was awarded the Bronze Star for valor in combat, but avoided publicizing the honor—not even telling his parents—until the media began inquiring about his military record.

Moulton has represented Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District since 2015. 

Markey, by contrast, is perhaps the definition of the longtime establishment of his party in Washington. He first served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1976 to 2013 before moving to the Senate. 

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., speaks at a press conference at the Capitol on May 5. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

“I don’t think someone who’s been in Congress for half a century is the right person to meet this moment and win the future,” the Massachusetts congressman contended in his campaign ad. 

Markey turned back a primary challenge by then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., in 2020, having portrayed himself as the more progressive candidate, with endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

But that was five years and a presidential election ago, and at 79, it’s unclear whether Massachusetts voters will feel as comfortable handing the aging senator another six-year term in 2026. It’s not surprising, then, that Moulton is seeing an opening. He famously is not afraid to take aim at one of the Democrat Party’s most unpopular shibboleths with the general public: allowing males who “identify” as female to compete in women’s sports. 

“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 in comments to The New York Times after last November’s presidential election in which then-Vice President Kamala Harris lost both the popular and Electoral College votes.

When Moulton faced blowback from the Left, the Massachusetts congressman doubled down, stating: “I stand firmly in my belief for the need for competitive women’s sports to put limits on the participation of those with the unfair physical advantages that come with being born male.”

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However, when it comes to his voting record on the issue, Moulton has toed the left-wing party line, voting for enshrining gender identity as a protected class in federal civil rights law. On the sports issue in particular, Moulton voted against Republican legislation to prohibit males in girls and women’s sports called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.

The Democratic Party primary election will be held on Sept. 1, 2026.

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