Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a progressive who has served in Congress for a half-century, swept past a much younger rival in a Democratic primary race Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

The victory by Markey, who at 80 is the oldest senator in his state’s history, came at a moment when many Democratic voters are anxious for the party’s aging leaders to make way for a younger generation. Markey used a fiercely progressive message and the support of many younger left-wing leaders to ward off Rep. Seth Moulton, 47, a moderate who had campaigned on a message of generational change.

With nearly 80% of the vote counted, Markey led Moulton by about 30 percentage points.

Markey will be an overwhelming favorite to win the November general election in deep-blue Massachusetts, positioning him to serve in the Senate until he is at least 86. When he arrived in the House in 1976, Apple was still developing its first widely used computer and Elvis Presley was still making music. Markey moved to the Senate in 2013.

During the campaign, Moulton, who is from the North Shore of Massachusetts and was not yet born when Markey arrived in Congress, seized on a moment in a debate in which Markey acknowledged he did not know if he used artificial intelligence in his work. Moulton said it showed Markey was out of touch and not up to the challenge of legislating in a changing world.

But Markey, a longtime Malden resident clad in Nike sneakers and speaking in a thick accent that erases Rs, emphasized his progressive credentials, much as he had six years earlier when he dispatched Joseph P. Kennedy III, a scion of the Kennedy family. (The Kennedys, political royalty in Massachusetts, had never lost a race in the state before Markey’s 2020 triumph.)

This year, Markey targeted Moulton over his position on transgender rights. The younger congressman had urged his party after the 2024 election to shift its stance on transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports, saying he did not want his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.”

Markey, in turn, campaigned as a strong supporter of trans rights, declaring that his opponent had thrown trans kids “under the bus.” Moulton said he was sorry if his comments had hurt anyone, but he stood by their substance.

Elected Democrats, aware that polls indicate that most Americans do not think trans athletes should be allowed to play in girls’ sports, have almost universally shied away from the issue since 2024. But in a primary in a deeply Democratic state, Markey appeared to have found a winning argument, saying that “I believe you can be right, but too soon.”

At his election night party in downtown Boston late Tuesday, Markey described the outcome as a “testament to the power of the progressive movement.” He credited young people with propelling him to victory, and suggested that they sought bold action from Washington.

“Generational change isn’t about compromising to do the small things better,” Markey said. “It’s about fighting to do the big things best. This is the United States of America, and we are Massachusetts. That is who we are.”

In the general election, Markey will face John Deaton, a Republican lawyer who also ran for Senate in 2024, losing overwhelmingly to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Deaton was unopposed in his primary.

Moulton, speaking to supporters in the Dorchester section of Boston on Tuesday night, said Markey had his “full support” and called on Democrats to “stand united” in the midterms.

A progressive cavalry also rallied to Markey’s cause. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Warren joined him on the campaign trail. And he received endorsements from younger progressives such as Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who is selective about wading into Democratic races.

Ocasio Cortez, 36, issued a statement hailing Markey as an “inspiration to many of us who are committed to building a better future for all.”

Moulton had hoped to tap into frustration with the party’s older leaders. After Joe Biden’s doomed effort in 2024 to win reelection to the White House in his ninth decade, younger Democratic challengers have piled into primaries across the country. Some have won: Democratic House incumbents have fallen to decades-younger contenders in races in Colorado, New York, Michigan and Connecticut.

But in each of those races, the insurgents melded their calls for generational change with progressive platforms. Democratic strategists said Markey’s progressive positions appeared to offer him a firewall against the relatively centrist Moulton.

Pressley, who defeated a 10-term House incumbent in a 2018 primary, said in an interview Tuesday night that primary races are “essential to the health of our democracy,” but that Democratic voters “are not looking for status quo incrementalism.”

“A lot of people tried to make this race about generational change,” said Pressley, 52. But, she added, “It doesn’t matter if you’re young, if your ideas are old.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Tim Balk/Mel Musto
c. 2026 The New York Times Company