Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts announced on Tuesday that she would not run for Senate next year, passing up a Democratic primary challenge to Senator Ed Markey. He is already facing an intraparty fight against Representative Seth Moulton.
Ms. Pressley, who early polls showed would have been competitive in a three-way race, told The Boston Globe that “ultimately in this moment, I feel called to fight” for her current seat, and not for the Senate. But she pointedly left open the possibility of running in the future and declined to endorse either Mr. Markey or Mr. Moulton.
“I’m not closing the door to a Senate run down the line,” Ms. Pressley told The Globe.
The primary race in Massachusetts is scheduled very late — in September 2026.
Mr. Moulton, 47, a veteran who has positioned himself in the past as a moderate Democrat, is running against Mr. Markey, 79, who is one of the chamber’s leading liberals. Mr. Moulton has so far centered his campaign on an argument of the need for generational change.
Ms. Pressley, 51, won her seat in the House by defeating a Democratic incumbent in a 2018 primary. She has attracted a national following among progressives as an original member of “The Squad,” alongside Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. But she has laid little of the financial groundwork typically necessary to mount a statewide run.
She ended September with less than $150,000 in cash on hand.
Mr. Moulton had $2.1 million. Mr. Markey had $2.6 million.
Ms. Pressley told The Globe that her family had been a top consideration, noting that her daughter is a senior in high school. “I just want to be present,” she said.
The race between Mr. Markey and Mr. Moulton is expected to test many of the ideological and generational divisions in the Democratic Party.
Shane Goldmacher is a Times national political correspondent.
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