Invoking the specter of Joe Biden and decrying Democrats whom he says have “clung to the status quo, insisted on using the same old playbook – and isn’t fighting hard enough,” Rep. Seth Moulton launched a primary challenge on Wednesday against Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey.
Moulton, a 46-year-old six-term congressman who spent a lot of his early years in Congress main challenges to then-House Democratic chief Nancy Pelosi, mentioned he’s working as a result of he doesn’t have religion in Markey — to not serve out one other Senate time period capably, and never to have the ability to lead the pushback to the present White House.
“Democrats have failed to stop Donald Trump’s harmful, racist agenda,” Moulton says in his marketing campaign launch video. “The next generation will keep paying the cost if we don’t change course. This isn’t a fight we can put off for another six years. The future we all believe in is on the line. We’re in a crisis. And with everything we learned in the last election, I just don’t believe Senator Markey should be running for another six-year term at 80 years old.”
Markey was a longtime member of the House earlier than being appointed to an open Senate seat in 2013. He gained a full time period the next yr, after which one other in 2020 regardless of a primary challenge from then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III – the primary time a member of the Kennedy dynasty had ever misplaced in the state. In that race, Markey was embraced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York for his or her collaboration on the Green New Deal and was instantly changed into a hero of that wing of the get together.
Other Massachusetts politicians thought-about taking over Markey this yr, with a number of inside polling displaying him weak in the solidly Democratic state the place the primary winner can be closely favored to win the seat. Fellow Rep. Ayanna Pressley has additionally been rumored to be a doable run.
Several Democrats in their 70s and 80s are dealing with primary challenges or retiring after youthful Democrats introduced bids against them explicitly over age. First elected in 1976, Markey is the longest serving present Democrat in Congress.
“The old playbook isn’t working, so this is exactly the debate Democrats need to have right now,” Moulton instructed NCS earlier this week. “Personally, I don’t get saying we want to build the future while recycling leadership from the past. Voters are asking for new energy, new ideas, and leadership that fights like hell against Trump but also lays out a positive vision for America.”
In his video, which in a transparent effort to indicate his vitality is essentially introduced with a digital camera mounted on him as he goes on a run, Moulton references an expertise from when he served in the Marine Corps, when on the finish of a battle he discovered a fellow Marine useless, and thought if he’d gotten there a little bit earlier, the person wouldn’t have died alone.
“That’s why I won’t wait to help people who need help right now,” Moulton says. “It’s why I won’t wait to do the hard thing and call out what’s not working in our own party. And it’s why we can’t wait to protect our families from Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.”