The Strange Primary of Ed Markey & South Moulton

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA)

Given that I have spent much of the past few days ardently supporting Janet Mills on Twitter (and I did put my money where my mouth is, making her the fifth contribution I've made to a Senate campaign this cycle), it's worth reminding you that I am, generally, supportive of the primary challenges to aging members of Congress, all things being equal.  Like many Democrats, I was scarred by the "age crises" that occurred surrounding Joe Biden, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Dianne Feinstein (as well as the recent deaths of Gerry Connolly, Sylvester Turner, & Raul Grijalva that delayed the inevitable Epstein Files vote that would've occurred by now otherwise) just like any other Democrat, and I think if you're over 70 and running for a high political office you should make a point of proving why you're special.  Jaime Harrison, the former DNC Chair, made a joke about how "some folks like to talk about age, until it's their favorite candidate" which isn't entirely untrue (looking at you, Bernie Bros), but I also think it's worth stating that there are candidates that are special, like Sherrod Brown, Nancy Pelosi, or, in my opinion Janet Mills (I also, personally, think that Bernie Sanders is unique, just not in a way that I value or find helpful, so I want him to retire but get why others don't) who are too valuable not to run when we can.

On the flip side, though, there are incumbents who are not indispensable.  Ed Markey is a great politician, and as I age, one of those figures that's kind of reassuring.  I have followed American politics as a hobby for over thirty years (I started clipping out newspaper articles about the 1992 presidential race when I was eight-years-old) and could probably have named pretty much every member of the Senate by the 1998 midterms.  As a result, there are very few national politicians who have basically been around as long as I've been following politics, and most members of Congress I have a memory of when they were first elected.  But Markey is on a short list of people that not only have been part of the congressional conversation as long as I've been following politics, but is one of nine members of Congress who have been in the body since before I was born, a list that will get shorter later next year with the retirement of Dick Durbin (and the very real possibility that Marcy Kaptur will lose reelection).  He's always been around, as far as I'm concerned.  I like Ed Markey (a lot), and think his work, particularly on climate change, is basically unrivaled on Capitol Hill right now, but at almost 80-years-old, he neither represents an area that's hard to hold (like Kaptur), nor is he indispensable as someone to rally the base (like Pelosi or Sanders), nor representing an area that's hard to win or we need to flip (like Brown or Mills).  I would be very open to a primary to him, which I will own was not the case in 2020 (my views, as so many politicians have claimed through the years, have "evolved" on this issue).  However, if his primary opponent ends up being Seth Moulton, who announced a challenge to him today...sign me up for six more years of Ed.

I think the logic for a primary challenge based on age needs to be both realistic (politicians tend to be older by design, especially members of Congress who are reaching the "CEO" level of their careers), so I'd say north of 65-70 would be when I'd start raising eyebrows, and also "all things being equal."  With Markey vs. Moulton, it's less about age to me and more about their views.  Moulton is considerably to the right of Markey on a number of issues.  Moulton is much more moderate on transgender rights, not always in deed (both Markey & Moulton support the Equality Act, which I view as the next really important piece of legislation the LGBTQ+ community needs to commit to nationally), but in word.  He in the past has called using pronouns in email signatures "weird," for example.  Moulton voted in favor of an amendment in the House that prohibited "race-based theories" in defense teaching, which given the Republican Party's aggressive attacks on communities of color (and public education & education institutions) feels long something in a solidly blue district should know better than to do.

This would not be as big of an issue if Moulton was running in Ohio or Nevada, where I'd expect at least some moderation on a few issues (someone like, say, Angie Craig I'm going to be more forgiving of because she came from a swing district).  But he's running in one of the bluest states in the nation-we do not need a Catherine Cortez Masto or Angus King in one of the bluest states in the country, and given that he could very well be a deciding vote on a number of issues (if the Democrats get a majority in the next six years, it'll be a narrow one), I want us to have to be making the case to a Senator Mary Peltola or Senator James Talarico that they should sign on for a progressive bill in Congress-no one should be worrying about what's happening with the junior senator from Massachusetts.  Keeping this in mind, I couldn't in good conscience support someone who would cause that many headaches when reliable Ed Markey is right there.

That said, I do hope Markey eventually changes his mind and decides not to run (with Moulton in the race, I doubt it happens, but it could).  Someone like Ayanna Pressley, who has been rumored for a while to be interested in this race (with or without Markey in it) is someone I would support, but this of course puts Pressley into an impossible position.  If she runs, in a state without Ranked-Choice Voting, Markey almost certainly wins as she & Moulton would split the anti-incumbent vote.  If she doesn't run, there's the very real possibility that Moulton wins, and she foregoes a chance at a promotion (at 51, she's certainly young by political standards, but old enough to not have limitless possibilities to run for higher office).  If Markey retires, she'd be able to easily fill his shoes...but with Moulton now taunting the famously combative Markey, I wonder if we have yet another older incumbent vs. young upstart primary, albeit this time with the establishment candidate being to the left of the challenger.