U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has thrown her support behind Sen. Ed Markey in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary, handing the 80-year-old incumbent a fresh jolt of progressive star power just twelve days before he faces Rep. Seth Moulton at the ballot box. The endorsement lands less than two weeks before the September 1 primary, reinforcing a wall of progressive support that already includes some of the party's biggest names.
According to The Boston Globe, Ocasio-Cortez said Markey has spent his career standing up for working families and fighting corporate greed, and that Massachusetts working families need a U.S. Senate champion willing to take on that fight. She also cited her partnership with Markey on the Green New Deal, calling him an inspiration to people committed to building a better future. Markey, for his part, praised Ocasio-Cortez as one of the most inspiring leaders in politics and said he looked forward to continuing to fight alongside her for a livable future.
The two lawmakers formally launched their climate partnership on February 7, 2019, when they introduced companion Green New Deal resolutions in the House and Senate. Ocasio-Cortez, who became the youngest woman ever to serve in the House when she was elected at age 29 in 2018, was one of Markey's most notable surrogates during his 2020 primary fight against Joe Kennedy III — a race Markey, then 74, ultimately won by a double-digit margin after Ocasio-Cortez endorsed him in September 2019, when she was 30.
A Direct Rebuttal To The Generational Argument
Moulton's campaign has centered on the idea that it's time for generational change in Washington, pointing to Markey's half-century in federal office — he was first elected to the U.S. House in 1976, served 37 years there, and won a special election to the Senate in June 2013. The Globe's reporting notes that Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement undercuts that argument directly: she said it is the age of ideas, not a person's age, that counts. Ocasio-Cortez herself is seen as a potential future Senate or presidential contender, which the Globe's report suggests adds extra weight to her framing of the race.
Markey has already tried to blunt the age issue himself. He pledged in July that if reelected, this would be his final term in the Senate — one that would conclude when he turns 86. That pledge came as Moulton, a Marine veteran, continued to press his case that fresh leadership is overdue in Massachusetts's Senate delegation.
Polling Still Favors The Incumbent
Markey has led Moulton in nearly all public polling since Moulton entered the race, and the week of August 17 brought two more surveys showing double-digit advantages for the incumbent. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll released August 18 found Markey leading Moulton by 14 percentage points. A separate statewide UMass Amherst/WCVB poll conducted August 5-12 showed an even wider gap, with Markey ahead 60% to 32% among likely Democratic primary voters and holding an 82% job approval rating, per UMass Amherst. That same poll's analysis pointed to Moulton's post-2024 positions on transgender sports participation as a distinct liability with the state's left-leaning Democratic base.
Markey's progressive support runs deep beyond Ocasio-Cortez. He received endorsements from Ayanna Pressley, Elizabeth Warren, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, whose backing Hoodline covered in a piece on Wu picking her Senate favorite. Sen. Bernie Sanders formally endorsed Markey's campaign on June 29, joining that lineup, a moment Hoodline detailed in its report on Bernie's Bay State primary pick. Massachusetts's progressive base also endorsed Markey overwhelmingly at the state Democratic party convention in May.
A Rocky Reception Even From The Globe's Newsroom
The endorsement arrives a day after the Boston Globe's own editorial board took the opposite position, backing Moulton over Markey and citing his leadership, courage, and willingness to challenge rigid party ideology, according to the Marblehead Current. That split — an editorial board urging pragmatic, next-generation leadership while progressive surrogates and primary voters appear to be sticking with the incumbent — has become one of the defining tensions of the campaign's final stretch.
Moulton has drawn his own outside support. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill traveled to Massachusetts to campaign for him, a reciprocal gesture after Moulton supported Sherrill through his Serve America PAC when she first ran for Congress in 2018. That PAC, built around service-oriented candidates, helped flip 18 House seats from red to blue during the 2018 midterms and remains central to Moulton's national profile. Moulton first arrived in Congress in 2014 by ousting 18-year incumbent John Tierney in a primary, making him the first primary challenger to defeat a sitting Massachusetts congressman since 1992 — a track record his campaign has pointed to as evidence a challenge to Markey was always winnable.
Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement of Markey follows a similar move she made in Michigan the previous month, when she backed Abdul El-Sayed in a contested Senate primary there in July; El-Sayed went on to win that race. Markey and Moulton are set to meet for their third and final Democratic primary debate today, August 20, with early voting already underway ahead of the September 1 primary.
