Rep. Seth Moulton invokes age in launching Democratic primary challenge against Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts

[Celerity]

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/15/politics/seth-moulton-launches-senate-primary-ed-markey



Invoking the specter of Joe Biden and decrying Democrats whom he says have “clung to the status quo, insisted on using the same old playbook – and isn’t fighting hard enough,” Rep. Seth Moulton launched a primary challenge on Wednesday against Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey.

Moulton, a 46-year-old six-term congressman who spent much of his early years in Congress leading challenges to then-House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, said he’s running because he doesn’t have faith in Markey — not to serve out another Senate term capably, and not to be able to lead the pushback to the current White House.

“Democrats have failed to stop Donald Trump’s harmful, racist agenda,” Moulton says in his campaign launch video. “The next generation will keep paying the cost if we don’t change course. This isn’t a fight we can put off for another six years. The future we all believe in is on the line. We’re in a crisis. And with everything we learned in the last election, I just don’t believe Senator Markey should be running for another six-year term at 80 years old.”

Markey was a longtime member of the House before being appointed to an open Senate seat in 2013. He won a full term the following year, and then another in 2020 despite a primary challenge from then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III – the first time a member of the Kennedy dynasty had ever lost in the state. In that race, Markey was embraced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York for their collaboration on the Green New Deal and was suddenly turned into a hero of that wing of the party.

snip

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. I wish he wasn't a Third Way New Democrat

He is to the right of Markey.

[Bettie]

3. I knew there was a reason

I had a reflexive eye roll when I saw his name.

[kentuck]

2. Whether we like it or not...

I think age will be an issue for Democrats in the upcoming elections. Eighty is not eighteen.

[Torchlight]

4. He's a pretty bad spokesman for the "youth over wisdom" wing

Not that there's been a valid argument there anyway.

[MurrayDelph]

5. Markey may be older

but is a solid liberal.

Moulton, on the other hand, strikes me as wanting to be the next Joe Lieberman. Hopefully, he will go the way of Joe Kennedy, who gave up a safe seat in Congress because he was tired of waiting and thought he deserved the Senate seat.