The 80-year-old progressive senator defeated Rep. Seth Moulton’s generational-change campaign by a wide margin, setting up a November matchup against Republican John Deaton.
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey has won Massachusetts’ Democratic primary for US Senate, defeating Rep. Seth Moulton in a race that became a closely watched test of generational change within the party. Markey, 80, secured the nomination by a wide margin on Tuesday, according to multiple news organizations’ race projections.
Markey will now face Republican John Deaton, who ran unopposed for his party’s nomination, in the November general election for a seat he has held since 2013.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Vote counting showed Markey leading Moulton by more than 30 percentage points as results came in Tuesday night, with race-callers projecting his victory early in the count. Markey was drawing roughly two-thirds of the vote in later tallies, a decisive result in a contest that had drawn national attention as one of several primaries this cycle pitting long-serving Democratic incumbents against younger challengers calling for new leadership.
Moulton, 47, a Marine Corps veteran first elected to the House in 2014, framed his campaign around the argument that the party needed younger voices, a message that has cost some other veteran House Democrats their seats in primaries elsewhere this year. Markey, first elected to Congress in 1976 and to the Senate in a 2013 special election, ran on his long progressive record, including his role as an author of the Green New Deal and his support for Medicare for All.
WHAT OFFICIALS / SOURCES ARE SAYING
In his victory remarks Tuesday night, Markey described the win as a demonstration of the strength of the progressive movement within the Democratic Party, and said the movement was being driven by young people demanding more from their leaders. He said he had spoken directly with Moulton after the race and thanked him for a hard-fought campaign.
Moulton, in his own remarks, acknowledged the loss but said he believed his campaign would inspire others to challenge established figures within the party in future races.
Markey campaigned with the backing of several prominent progressive figures, including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all of whom appeared in campaign advertising on his behalf. Moulton and his allies reported spending roughly $7.1 million on advertising in the race, compared with about $3.9 million spent by Markey and his allies, according to ad-tracking data cited in national election coverage.
KEY FACTS
- Location: Massachusetts
- Date: Primary held Tuesday, September 1, 2026
- Result: Markey defeated Moulton by a wide margin, drawing roughly two-thirds of the vote
- General election matchup: Markey will face Republican nominee John Deaton in November
- Latest development: Markey is seeking his third full term in the US Senate
WHY THIS MATTERS
The race was widely viewed as a test of whether Democratic voters would prioritize experience and progressive credentials over calls for generational turnover, at a time when several long-serving House Democrats have lost primary challenges to younger opponents elsewhere in the country. Markey’s decisive win suggests that, in this heavily Democratic state, ideological alignment carried more weight with primary voters than age or tenure.
The outcome also has implications for the broader battle for Senate control this November, since Massachusetts is considered a safely Democratic seat, meaning Markey enters the general election as a strong favorite.
BACKGROUND
Markey has faced a serious primary challenge once before, defeating former Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the 2020 Senate primary by roughly ten percentage points, a result that marked the first time a member of the Kennedy family had lost a Massachusetts election. Moulton, first elected to represent the state’s 6th Congressional District in 2014, has previously positioned himself as a party disruptor, including leading an unsuccessful effort in 2018 to block Nancy Pelosi from becoming House speaker, and running an unsuccessful bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Markey will move on to the November general election against Republican John Deaton. Given the state’s strong Democratic lean, Markey is widely expected to be favored in that contest, though the campaign is likely to continue drawing attention as part of the broader battle for Senate control in the midterm elections.
LATEST UPDATE
As of the most recent reporting, Markey’s win has been confirmed by multiple news organizations’ race projections, and attention is now shifting toward the general election campaign ahead of the November 3 midterms.
