At an Aug. 20 debate for the Democratic Senate nomination in Massachusetts, a question about whether the candidates use artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT got to the heart of one of the race’s main issues.
“I use whatever is inside of my iPhone or my iPad, whatever comes up,” Sen. Ed Markey said. "I don't know what companies my iPad might be using, but if it does, in fact, provide me with the information which I'm asking the device to give to me, then of course I'm using it."
Rep. Seth Moulton seized on the response to support one of his central lines of attack against the incumbent: that Markey, 80, is too old to be elected to his third full term.
“With all due respect Senator, if you don’t even know what you’re using on your phone
or your iPad, this is why we need a new generation of leaders to regulate these technologies,” Moulton said.
Moulton, 47, is one of several Democratic candidates running a primary challenge to an incumbent in Massachusetts on a message of generational change. Of the state’s nine U.S. House members, four are facing primary opponents with a version of the same message.
The unusually high number of primary challenges against incumbents in the Bay State follows a national trend. Around the country, Democrats running against a more experienced, usually older opponent, have been calling for change.
Many, including activist Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32, who beat five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat, 71, in New York; lawyer Melat Kiros, 29, who defeated 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette, 69, in Colorado; and former Hartford, Connecticut, Mayor Luke Bronin, 47, who beat 14-term Rep. John Larson, 78, have won off that message, capitalizing on Democratic voters’ frustration with its party’s current approach to combating President Donald Trump’s administration.
“It's the perception of many that if you've been in office for a very, very long time, that your playbook's too old,” University of Massachusetts, Boston, political science professor Erin O’Brien said. “This is one of those rare moments where maybe you won't pay to such a degree to challenge an incumbent with the party, and voters are potentially listening.”
The challenges also come as Democrats hope to take control of at least one of the chambers of Congress in November’s midterm elections. In deep-blue Massachusetts, the winners of each Democratic primary on Sept. 1 are expected to win the general election.
Defeating incumbents is historically difficult. According to a 2016 review by Ballotpedia, House and Senate incumbents nationwide have been reelected at rates over 93% and 87% respectively. In 2024, 97% of congressional incumbents were reelected, the site said in another article. But even if the Massachusetts incumbents win, UMass Poll Director Tatishe Nteta said, the number of challenges shows that large chunks of their constituency are not happy with their leadership.
Democratic challengers call for generational change
Moulton has framed his challenge against Markey around generational change since the beginning.
“The future we all believe in is on the line. Our party has clung to the status quo, insisted on using the same old playbook and isn’t fighting hard enough,” Moulton said in his campaign announcement video. “We need new leaders to step up and take us forward.”
It’s the same argument that lawyer Patrick Roath, 39, is using in his attempt to unseat 13-term Rep. Stephen Lynch, 71, in the state’s 8th Congressional District. Roath is backed by Leaders We Deserve, a group founded by David Hogg, the 26-year-old former vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, that aims to elect young progressives to Congress.
In an interview with the Patriot Ledger, Roath described Lynch as a “career politician” and criticized him for being too moderate, mentioning votes Lynch has taken against the Affordable Care Act and for the Laken Riley Act, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented people arrested for crimes such as theft or shoplifting.
“I just think there's a different kind of leadership that the moment demands than what he's offering,” Roath said.
That's the reverse of the Senate race ideologically, in which Markey − a leader in combating climate change − is to Moulton's left.
But both Markey and Lynch are arguing that their experience makes them the right candidate for another term.
The same dynamics are playing out in three other Democratic House primaries. In the 1st District, which covers much of the western and central parts of Massachusetts, teacher Jeromie Whalen, 39, is taking on Rep. Richard Neal, 77. In the 5th District, which includes suburbs north and west of Boston, House Minority Whip Rep. Katherine Clark, 63, faces two opponents in Tarik Samman, a 27-year-old union organizer and Harvard Law School researcher, and Jonathan Paz, a 33-year-old former Waltham city councilor and immigrant rights organizer. And in the 9th District, which encompasses Cape Cod and southern parts of the South Shore, consultant Craig Swallow, 40, is primarying Rep. Bill Keating, 73.
“These candidates all are a reaction to a second Trump administration in which the administration has really pushed the country in a conservative fashion,” Nteta said. “This is, to me, a reaction or reflection of some level of ineptitude of the Democratic Party over the course of these 10 years, really, of the Trump MAGA movement.”
Even the 6th District race, where six candidates are vying for the open seat left by Moulton, reveals some of this tension.
“The number of candidates that are competing for that seat is a reflection of the demand for congressional representation and congressional seats that is not being fulfilled because the incumbents in many seats across the Commonwealth are refusing to cede power,” Nteta said.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss is also facing a challenger from the left in AI researcher Jason Poulos. But Poulos, 40, is slightly older than the incumbent, 38.
Can the generational change candidates win in MA?
In the Senate, it doesn’t seem like Moulton’s call for change is working – not necessarily because there isn’t an appetite for it, but because Markey may be more in step with the state's Democratic electorate.
A UMass Poll from Aug. 17 found that 60% of said they are planning to vote for or leaning towards Markey, over 32% for Moulton. A University of New Hampshire poll released Aug. 26 found Markey leading 63% to Moulton’s 28%.
It’s not that voters don’t know that Markey is old. But he’s very popular among his party: the UMass poll found he had an 82% approval rating among Democrats and he hasn’t lost an election in Massachusetts in 50 years. Markey consistently stresses his progressive credentials, referencing the Green New Deal, touting endorsements from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and attacking Moulton for comments he made against transgender athletes.
Moulton said in a 2024 interview with The New York Times that he didn’t want his two girls “run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.” He has since said that it was not his intention to hurt people.
“Seth Moulton is younger and more moderate, and that might work in a red state or a purple state, but the Massachusetts primary voter is a Democratic primary voter is really angry about Donald Trump and probably farther to the left than Seth Moulton,” O’Brien said. “I think it's generational change times ideology times are you perceived to bring the policy goods.”
It’s also an uphill battle for the challengers in the House races, most of whom are running to the left of their opponent. Incumbents benefit from name recognition and being able to point to accomplishments like bringing home federal funding for projects in their district. Polling has been limited in these races.
Still, O’Brien said that she “wouldn’t be surprised” if Whalen upsets Neal or Roath unseats Lynch, because of the discontented political climate.
“They've got a shot right now,” O’Brien said. “If I was going to Vegas, would I bet on them? Probably not. But the odds are a lot better than they have been in recent memory in other election cycles.”
What does it all mean?
If you’re someone that wants big generational change, picking up one seat probably doesn’t feel that monumental.
“But even that is a huge shift,” O’Brien said, “because it’s just so rare.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Massachusetts, and Moulton are the only current Massachusetts U.S. representatives who won by defeating a Democratic incumbent. Pressley beat Michael Capuano in 2018 and Moulton beat John Tierney in 2014. Neal has served 19 terms, Lynch 13, Keating eight and Clark seven.
In the 1st District, Neal will become the chair of the Ways and Means Committee if he is reelected and Democrats take control of the House. With that power, he’ll have even more ability to deliver spending for the district.
But if he loses, it will show that voters are willing to give up that influence “in order for a new generation of leaders to chart the next story of the Democratic Party,” Nteta said.
If any of the incumbents lose, he continued, “it’s an indictment on their leadership, and it's an indictment of their ability to articulate a vision of the future and roadmap as to how to challenge the current administration."
Even if none of the change candidates get elected, Nteta said their unusually high number proves many Democrats are unhappy with the current leadership and raises the question of whether the party will try to respond to that ferment.
“It's a bubbling cauldron, and not over exploding as of yet, of the need for movement by some members of Congress to cede to the next generation,” Nteta said. “I think this is just the beginning.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Markey vs. Moulton: Dem challenger in MA stresses generational change
