Ed Markey Is 80. He Just Beat a 47-Year-Old Who Ran on Generational Change by About 30 Points.

Sen. Ed Markey defeated Rep. Seth Moulton in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday, taking about two-thirds of the vote and finishing roughly 30 points ahead once nearly all ballots were counted. NBC News projected the race Tuesday night.

The result cuts against a pattern that has defined Democratic primaries this year, in which younger challengers have unseated a string of long-serving House incumbents on the argument that the party needs new leadership. Moulton, 47, made that case explicitly. "Sen. Markey and I want the same things, but wanting isn't winning, and the old way isn't working," he said in one television ad, running through a list of positions that included taxing the wealthy, abolishing ICE and universal health care.

Markey, 80, ran as the more progressive of the two and let his record do the arguing. He is a co-author of the Green New Deal and a longtime backer of Medicare for All, and he framed the primary as a fight over what kind of Democrat Massachusetts sends to Washington. "It's all about not just sending a Democrat to the Senate — it's sending a progressive Democrat to the Senate from Massachusetts so there can be someone that reflects your values every single day," he told a rally the night before the vote, calling the race "a progressive final round."

Money did not decide it. Moulton and his allies spent $7.1 million on advertising to $3.9 million for Markey and his supporters, according to AdImpact. Markey answered with endorsements: Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts both appeared in an ad for him, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York backed him as well. An outside group, Commonwealth Together PAC, hammered Moulton over 2019 comments from his short-lived presidential campaign in which he criticized Medicare for All and taxing billionaires.

Markey also attacked Moulton over transgender issues, telling the eve-of-primary rally that the congressman "threw trans kids under the bus" after the 2024 election. Moulton had told The New York Times then that he did not want his daughters "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 apologized in a recent debate to anyone hurt by the remarks.

Moulton conceded Tuesday night and said he had called Markey "to congratulate him on his victory tonight," adding that the senator "has my full support as our Democratic nominee, and we must stand united this November to protect our democracy and defeat Donald Trump." Markey, first elected to the Senate in 2013 after nearly four decades in the House, now faces Republican John Deaton in November in a state Democrats have not lost a Senate race in since 1972.