Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey is getting help from some old friends in the environmental movement as he looks to defend his seat from a new primary challenger.
Markey fended off a challenge from then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III in 2020 with the help of greens. They’re vowing to mobilize again now that Rep. Seth Moulton announced he’ll take on Markey, who has spent five decades in Congress.
Moulton, 46, is directly challenging Markey over his age, framing his campaign as one for generational change. Markey, 79, would be 86 at the end of his term if he wins reelection next year.
“I don’t think someone who’s been in Congress for half a century is the right person to meet this moment and win the future,” Moulton said in a video announcing his candidacy. “Sen. Markey’s a good man. But it’s time for a new generation of leadership, and that’s why I’m running for U.S. Senate.”
But beyond age, the environment will be prominent in the contest. Markey has for decades been among the Hill’s loudest voices on climate and other green issues.
Weeks before Moulton launched his bid, Markey scored a key endorsement from the League of Conservation Voters, an electoral juggernaut. The group and its affiliates spent $165 million in the 2024 electoral cycle.
“He’s someone who’s been leading on these issues and fighting for his whole career. It’s hard to name many folks who have done more for these issues than Sen. Markey,” Craig Auster, LCV’s vice president of political affairs, said in an interview.
“I think voters are going to see that and know that Sen. Markey is on the front lines fighting for them and the things that are important to them, including clean energy and climate,” Auster continued.
“We especially in this awful time need somebody like Sen. Markey who’s not afraid of a tough fight and who always keeps what’s important at the top of his agenda, fighting for his constituents and the environment.”
The Sunrise Movement wrote on X in response to Moulton’s launch video: “Sorry, but you are one of the ‘leaders’ refusing to stand up to Trump — and you’re trying to unseat one of the people in Congress who has done the most to fight back against Trump.”
Markey’s green history
Markey is perhaps known best for the “American Clean Energy and Security Act,” which would have instituted a nationwide cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, when he was in the House. He co-wrote the bill with then-Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). The legislation passed the House, but the Senate never passed its own version.
Later, Markey was the chief Senate sponsor of the Green New Deal, which he introduced in 2019 alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). It seeks a rapid decarbonization of the U.S. economy, with universal health care and guarantees of jobs and housing.
He notched some key wins in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, including the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund; $3 billion in environmental block grants; and millions for air pollution censors, energy efficient glass, offshore wind and more.
Many of those programs, however, were later undone in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act this year or via clawbacks by the Trump administration.
Markey has tried to get ahead of the question of his age. In an interview with Boston ABC News affiliate WCVB last year in which he announced he’d run for reelection, he said, “It’s not your age, it’s the age of your ideas.
“And I’ve always been the youngest guy in the room, working on the Green New Deal, on climate change, to make sure that the funding is there for wind and solar, all electric vehicles,” he continued.
Moulton dings Dem leaders
Moulton is likely to campaign as a centrist alternative to Markey. His launch video extensively criticized Democratic leadership, saying that “real people across Massachusetts are being hurt by Democratic leaders refusing to do everything they can to win.”
Moulton challenged Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the position of speaker after the 2018 midterm elections, and ran in the 2020 presidential election. He’s emphasized bipartisanship and bucked Democrats on numerous occasions, including criticizing the party for its transgender rights positions following the 2024 elections.
Moulton also was an early supporter of the Green New Deal in the House. He mentioned a commitment to fighting climate change numerous times in his campaign launch.
“Let’s talk about our children and the future that will be left for them if we don’t protect our democracy and tackle climate change,” he said, later saying children “need us to get back on the offensive when it comes to banning assault weapons and fighting climate change” and boasting about the climate impact of high-speed rail legislation he’s proposed.
A recent University of New Hampshire poll found that 42 percent of voters think Markey deserves reelection, and 39 percent say he doesn’t.
Another poll, released by the conservative Fiscal Alliance Foundation, had Moulton ahead of Markey by a margin of 43 percent to 21 percent among all likely voters, but a smaller gap of 38 percent to 30 percent among Democrats.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) hasn’t ruled out running in the Senate primary.
Climate activists — particularly the youth-centric Sunrise Movement — were key to Markey’s vicory against Kennedy.
The group, which is the main backer of the Green New Deal, activated its chapters across Massachusetts in support of Markey, making hundreds of thousands of calls, hosting virtual and in-person events, promoting him extensively on social media, and more. The senator’s appearances throughout the campaign in a bomber jacket and red Nike sneakers endeared him to the young activists.
“Sunrise Movement helped Markey win the youth vote, win the internet, and define himself as the clear progressive choice in this race,” Varshini Prakash, Sunrise’s executive director at the time, said after Markey’s primary victory.
Markey called his win “a tribute to those young people and to their vision.”
It helped move Markey from a 14-percentage-point polling deficit in a Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll a year before the primary to an 11-percentage-point win over Kennedy.
Markey easily won the general election with twice as many votes as his Republican opponent, Kevin O’Connor.
