Democrats ignored calls for a generational change in the Massachusetts Senate primary on Sept. 1 between two contenders separated by four decades and a handful of policy differences.
Within 30-minutes of the polls closing in the Bay State, 81-year-old Sen. Ed Markey was the projected winner over 47-year-old Rep. Seth Moulton, who hung much of his challenge on the need for new blood.
Many primary contests this year have featured veteran incumbents fending off newcomers, who have explicitly argued that many congressional members are too old. The issue remains a raw nerve for Democrats two years after questions about former President Joe Biden's age divided the party.
Markey has served in Congress since 1976 – three years before Moulton was born.
He is currently the party's oldest senator and will likely receive another six year term from voters in deep blue Massachusetts.
"Tonight is a testament to the power of the progressive movement of our nation," Markey said during a victory speech Tuesday. "It is a progressive movement fueled by young people demanding more from their leaders, and it’s your voices that are the ones we need to hear right now. Your leadership will show us the way."
At least three other Massachusetts elections saw Democratic primaries drawn along generational lines, with incumbents as old as 77 facing primary foes as young as 27. Chief among them was the battle between Rep. Stephen Lynch, 71, and Patrick Roath, a 39-year-old attorney who served as an aide to former Gov. Deval Patrick.
Here are the key takeaways from Tuesday's election.
Age wasn't nothing but a number
Moulton repeatedly tried to make the Bay State primary contest about the party's aging leadership, which has created a deluge of Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z contenders running in Democratic primaries this year.
"It’s not your age, it's the age of your ideas," Moulton often repeated on the campaign trail.
First elected to the House in 2014, Moulton promised to oppose Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 75, of New York, if elected and tried to cast Markey as out of touch.
There were moments during the race where that point became clear. During an Aug. 20 debate, Markey struggled say which artificial intelligence platform he uses.
But outside of that fumble Markey crushed questions about his age much in the same way he did six years ago, when he defeated Joe Kennedy III, by showcasing his progressive record and support from a gallery of well-known progressives, such as Rep. Alexandria Oscasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont.
So far in the 2026 primary season at least five congressional Democrats – from Texas to Colorado – who are age 65 or older have lost to younger foes amid the anti-establishment revolt. Now with Markey's win and other outcomes in the Sept. 1 primaries, the Democratic incumbent above retirement age has beaten back the younger challenger in six contests.
Markey eagerly leaned into trans athletes fight
One key difference in the Massachusetts contents compared to other primaries: Moulton, the younger option, was also more moderate compared to Markey on a host of issues.
The senator consistently spotlighted being more progressive and focused his sharpest attacks on Moulton's comments against transgender athletes in 2024.
In the aftermath of Donald Trump's victory, Moulton said he didn’t want his two girls "run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete." The congressman has since said that it was not his intention to hurt people. Markey, unlike most Democrats seeking office this year, leaned into the issue saying his rival had thrown trans kids "under the bus."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that states can ban transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams, and conservative activists have turned the issue into a wedge most recently with demonstrations at WNBA games.
About 73% of Americans say they are uncomfortable with transgender athletes competing on sports teams that do not match their sex at birth, according to a Pew Research Center poll released in August. That includes 55% of registered Democrats who say the same.
Markey will face Republican John Deaton in the fall in a race rated solidly Democratic.
Hogg throws weight behind younger Massachusetts Democrats
Further down the ballot, there were other contests that pitted Democratic candidates from different generations against each other – attracting attention from national figures.
Former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg, who exited the party last year after clashing with leadership over primary endorsements, endorsed attorney Patrick Roath, 39, over Rep. Stephen Lynch, 71, in the state's 8th congressional race, which covers Boston suburbs in the southeastern part of the state.
Hogg's group, Leaders We Deserve, has been supporting many of the younger primary challenges this year including Roath, who received about $470,000 from the group, according to federal campaign finance records.
Similar to Moulton, this campaign centered heavily on age and ideology.
Hogg and his allies, for instance, decried Lynch for accepting corporate PAC money and for being the last House Democrat in office who voted against the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
But that wasn't enough to pull Roath over the edge. Preliminary results showed he lost to Lynch by roughly 15 percentage points, despite attacks that he wasn't progressive enough for a district former Vice President Kamala Harris won with 62 percent of the vote in 2024.
Elder incumbents prevailed in the other primaries that were generational referendums. Rep. Richard Neal, 77, defeated 39-year-old teacher Jeromie Whalen in the 1st Congressional District and Rep. Katherine Clark, 63, the House minority whip, besting Tarik Samman, a 27-year-old union organizer and Jonathan Paz, a 33-year-old immigrant rights organizer, in the 5th Congressional District.
Contributing: Margie Cullen
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Markey defies Democrat's age referendum in Massachusetts: 3 takeaways
