Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts is moving closer to a primary challenge against Senator Ed Markey in what would be the most prominent test of the Democratic Party’s appetite for generational change after the 2024 election.
Mr. Moulton has been discussing a Senate run, and hiring and interviewing people to work on his campaign, according to five people with knowledge of his activities not authorized to speak publicly. A potential campaign kickoff is expected in early October, two of the people said. He was recently spotted with a film crew in Massachusetts.
A 46-year-old Marine Corps veteran, Mr. Moulton would be taking on Mr. Markey, who was first elected to Congress in 1976 and is one of the party’s progressive stalwarts. Yet Mr. Markey would be 86 at the end of another Senate term, which would make him one of the oldest members.
Mr. Moulton has long been seen as smart, ambitious and impatient. He won his House seat by ousting a Democratic incumbent in a 2014 primary, and during his decade in Congress has chafed at the party’s liberal orthodoxies and at its deference to elders. He briefly ran for president in 2020 and tried to prevent Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, from becoming speaker after the 2018 election.
In a statement, Mr. Moulton said his plans for 2026 were not yet settled: “While I continue to look at the best options to represent Massachusetts moving forward, I have not yet made a decision about running for U.S. Senate.”
Mr. Moulton has already banked nearly $2.2 million for his re-election that he could immediately spend on a Senate primary. And he has already hired Joseph Caiazzo, a Democratic strategist who worked for Mr. Markey’s last primary challenger, former Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, in 2020. Mr. Caiazzo also worked on the New Hampshire presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Mr. Markey has slightly more cash, entering the summer with $2.5 million.
Cam Charbonnier, Mr. Markey’s campaign manager, said in statement that “the fight Senator Markey is leading every day” was to make life more affordable, protect immigrants, oppose President Trump and help Democrats take control of the House and Senate.
The Boston Globe earlier reported Mr. Moulton’s interest in a Senate run.
Mr. Markey, 79, already fended off a primary challenge in the 2020 election, delivering the first defeat to a member of the Kennedy clan in Massachusetts when he topped Mr. Kennedy by more than 10 percentage points.
That race, too, had been defined by generational differences. But Mr. Markey successfully aligned himself with one of the party’s bright young stars, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Mr. Markey, who announced his intent to seek another term last year, has settled on a repeated refrain to answer questions about his advancing age: “It’s not your age. It’s the age of your ideas.”
A 2026 contest between Mr. Moulton and Mr. Markey could also turn on ideological dimensions.
Mr. Markey was the Senate sponsor of the Green New Deal with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Mr. Moulton has earned the ire of some on the left for his criticism of the party’s position on transgender athletes after the 2024 election.
“I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” Mr. Moulton told The New York Times the day after last November’s elections.
Mr. Moulton’s campaign manager at the time resigned in protest. This summer, he drew a primary challenger for his House seat who identifies as transgender.
Mr. Moulton’s interest in the Senate has been the subject of discussions in Massachusetts political circles for months, and potential candidates are already lining up to replace him in his district in the state’s northeastern corner.
Indeed, politicking in the Senate race has already begun. The Markey campaign, for instance, rolled out of a series of endorsements last month from the region of the state that Mr. Moulton represents. Mr. Markey also already has announced key congressional endorsements, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and five of Mr. Moulton’s colleagues in the House, including the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, Representative Katherine Clark.
Another younger member of the Massachusetts delegation, Representative Jake Auchincloss, 37, recently ruled out challenging Mr. Markey but did not endorse the incumbent.
Another notable name missing among the Markey endorsers is Representative Ayanna Pressley, a progressive rising star who some think could also enter the race, especially if Mr. Moulton does. Ms. Pressley has far less cash in the bank, however, only about $125,000 entering July.
Mr. Markey, Mr. Moulton and Ms. Pressley all attended the Massachusetts Democrats’ state convention this month.
Ricardo A. Sánchez, a spokesman for Ms. Pressley, responded to speculation that Ms. Pressley might consider a run by saying the congresswoman was focused on serving her district.
Mr. Moulton first won his congressional seat in 2014 by taking out a Democratic incumbent, John Tierney, in a primary, winning by 10 percentage points.
His effort to prevent Ms. Pelosi’s return as House leader flopped and by April 2019 he announced a short-lived presidential run. He quit four months later and did not qualify for the debates.
Throughout, he has relentlessly pushed for fresh faces to represent the Democratic Party.
The first line of Mr. Moulton’s biography on his website — since 2014 — has called for “a new generation” of leaders in Washington, according to internet archives.
Shane Goldmacher is a Times national political correspondent.
Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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