Ed Markey will not leave the stage
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Sen. Ed Markey speaks at a No Kings Day event on Boston Common in Boston on March 28. Photo: Finn Gomez/Boston Globe via Getty Images
Deehan here with Spill of the Hill, my column unraveling Massachusetts politics.
Ed Markey spent Saturday in Worcester doing what his detractors sometimes insist he can no longer do — energizing a crowd and winning a fight.
Why it matters: Markey captured 73% of the vote from more than 4,000 delegates at the Massachusetts Democratic Party convention, well clear of Senate primary rival Rep. Seth Moulton.
- The vote was lopsided enough that it left a little less room for Moulton's central argument that rank-and-file Democrats are ready to move on from the 49-plus-year member of Congress.
The intrigue: Markey's speech ran conspicuously long.
- A visibly irritated Democratic State Committee Chairman Steve Kerrigan made repeated attempts to signal to the senator that it was time to wrap up.
- Markey's mic was cut after he exceeded the 20-minute limit, and his wife ultimately had to walk onstage and physically close his binder.
- Markey kept going and the crowd kept cheering.
Between the lines: The optics could cut both ways.
- A near-octogenarian who won't yield the microphone could bolster Moulton's generational-change pitch.
- Or it could spotlight a veteran politician who still commands a room and knows it.
The big picture: Moulton's argument didn't go over that well with the party die-hards who have championed Markey for decades.
- But with 27% of the vote, he's still got a shot at attracting a winning coalition of active Democrats and unenrolled voters willing to pick up a Dem ballot on Sept. 1.
State of play: The 79-year-old Malden Democrat's convention address drew strong applause as he reiterated commitments to progressive priorities, including the Green New Deal, universal health care and protections for transgender youth.
- He directly criticized Moulton, 47, over past remarks on transgender student-athletes, framing the race as a choice between established advocacy and inconsistency.
- It was red meat, or at least spicy seitan, for the devoted Democrats who delivered him the victory.
By the numbers: A recent Emerson College poll had Markey leading Moulton 37% to 32% among likely Democratic primary voters, with 29% still undecided.
- That's the closest margin yet, a tightening from earlier surveys that showed Markey ahead by nearly 20 points.
What's next: Moulton has momentum. He's been pushing for several debates, the classic play of a trailing challenger.
- Both campaigns are shifting resources to getting their supporters out to vote, listening tours, town halls and a single debate scheduled for later this summer.
The bottom line: If Markey shows up to that debate the way he showed up in Worcester — and not the way Joe Biden showed up on a debate stage in 2024 — the case for his retirement gets considerably harder to make.