Oh, if this wasn't a battle of the viles, I don't know what was.
But contrary to the way many of these incumbent challenges have turned out during the recent primary fights, this time the old grey horse hung on by virtue of being the most obnoxious progressive on the ballot.
A more privileged, polished Bernie who has had his Beacon Hill-ish butt parked in a public office chair since 1973, Ed Markey started with the Massachusetts State House, won a U.S. congressional seat in 1976, and his Senate seat in 2013.
Been there ever since, more's the pity. Fifty-three years on the public dole, successfully fending off all comers.
This year's challenging dreamer was none other than glory-hound Congressman Seth Revoltin' Moulton, a scurrilous blend of mendacity and moxie.
This is the mortifying Marine Corps veteran who once argued that not federally funding private abortions was the same as not paying the troops.
Oh, yes, *roll eyes*, he did.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.) compared funding abortion to funding the troops during an interview Thursday.
Speaking on CNN's New Day, Moulton called for Congress to repeal the Hyde Amendment. The amendment, passed in 1976, prohibits providing federal funds for abortion procedures. Asked about Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden's support for the amendment, Moulton compared Biden's view to opposing paying America's troops.
"I think he should change his position," he told CNN's Alisyn Camerota and John Berman. "I think it's wrong."
Moulton, a Marine Corps veteran, claimed the government not funding private abortions was analogous to refusing to pay the armed forces.
"It's sort of like saying, you know, I support the troops but don't want to pay them," he said.
Camerota seemed surprised by the argument, her back straightening and jaw dropping.
There isn't enough space here to catalog this slimy, cocksure operator's myriad revolting pronouncements.
But a few of his more memorable ones are what got him shellacked against a geriatric relic last night.
Moulton has always been a big, vociferous fan of allowing medical facilities to carve transgender-inclined children into tiny bits, and for that reason, has had the trans-ideological crowd in his back pocket for the longest time.
But in the wake of the Harris 2024 wipeout, Moulton semi-reversed course.
The congressman who had proudly co-sponsored the Transgender Bill of Rights in 2023, voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, as well as maintained stellar ratings according to certain trans-friendly metrics...
...Both candidates have histories of supporting LGBTQ+ rights and voting against anti-trans legislation. Moulton co-sponsored the Transgender Bill of Rights when it was introduced in 2023, as well as multiple versions of the Equality Act. He’s also maintained a score of 100 on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard, and he voted against the anti-trans “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” last year.
...shocked many of his erstwhile allies in the post-election navel-gazing stage by declaring that the trans-rights fight had demonstrably hurt the party.
The transgender lobby considered it a complete ideological and unforgivable abandonment.
...The Democrat who made abandoning transgender people into the post-2024 capitulation script for "moderate" Democrats has now been abandoned himself, by the voters of his own state. Congressman Seth Moulton, the originator of the current wave of anti-transgender Democrats, blamed Democrats' 2024 defeat in part on the party's support for transgender people in the immediate aftermath of the election, fearmongering over transgender athletes and calling trans girls "male" athletes who would run over his daughters on the playing field. His remarks sparked fury in his own state, even as he opted to run for higher office, challenging Senator Ed Markey in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary. Rather than run away from transgender people, though, Markey used the moment to differentiate himself, championing transgender people at every turn, and the issue became a defining point of difference between the two candidates at debates and rallies. Now we have a final result: Markey has trounced Moulton, winning 65 to 35 in a race that some polls once showed as fairly close early on, and come January, Moulton will hold no elected office at all, having given up his safe House seat to run.
In 2024, in the aftermath of Kamala Harris's loss to Donald Trump, Moulton became one of the earliest to embrace a new, albeit rare, line of thinking among some Democrats: that transgender individuals were to blame for the election, and that sports bans on transgender youth are good to embrace. Such bans have come with proposals to genitally inspect student athletes, and in Utah, officials secretly investigated a girl's sex all the way back to kindergarten after the parents of the girls she had defeated complained. In an interview with The New York Times the day after Trump's victory, Moulton said, "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." Then, following the backlash, he doubled down in a Washington Post op-ed titled "I'm done with Democratic purity tests" and declared that "the backlash has only served to reinforce my original point."
Oh, the ever-adept Markey ran like a sparkly-hoofed unicorn to the rainbow light as Moulton shifted to the middle to claim the 'moderate' position.
In Massachusetts.
Proves again that not only is Moulton an obnoxious, self-absorbed, egotistical opportunist, but he's also not very bright.
Eventually, a panicked Moulton tried to claw everything back when he finally realized the danger he'd put himself in, but alas.
Moulton flip-flopped on transgender kids in sports—he was one of the first to emerge after the Democrats’ 2024 drubbing to say he didn’t want boys running his daughters over on the playing field, then apologized for the incalculable pain he’d caused—and pulled similar moves on a… pic.twitter.com/gyP1Q68qPl
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) September 2, 2026
...and pulled similar moves on a national wealth tax and Israel, histrionically declaring he wouldn’t accept any donations from AIPAC.
It didn’t work.
Too bad, so sad, too late.
Markey crushed Moulton like one of the bugs the Davos crowd wants you to eat.
Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey defeated Democrat Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton Tuesday in a landslide, marking a rare win for the old-guard incumbents.
Young Democratic candidates have largely defeated older incumbents in 2026 primary elections. Eighty-year-old Markey defied that precedent by beating 47-year-old Moulton, who is more moderate than the incumbent.
...“Democratic voters are hungry for a new generation of leaders who can credibly argue they’ll fight for change” Amanda Litman, founder of left-wing group Run For Something, told Axios.
Moulton ran as the moderate, receiving endorsements from Democratic New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Democratic New York Rep. Pat Ryan and Democratic Rhode Island Rep. Seth Magaziner, according to his campaign website. He campaigned on affordability, outlined a plan for encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and creating a public option for healthcare.
Markey supports allowing irreversible procedures for trans-identifying minors, abolishing ICE and implementing “universal healthcare,” according to his campaign website.
This is the second consecutive election cycle in which Markey prevailed against a younger challenger. In 2020, the then-74-year-old senator defeated then-39-year-old Rep. Joe Kennedy III — the nephew of now Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. —in the Democratic Senate primary.
Democrat Seth Moulton is so unlikable, fossilized socialist Ed Markey just crushed him in the Massachusetts Senate primary https://t.co/HcdxRyVZ9C
— Adrienne (@YoAdrienne1968) September 2, 2026
A blowout from the get-go, the final tally settled at 65-35 for Markey.
Ed Markey just crushed Seth Moulton’s “new generation” campaign in Massachusetts.
— Ezequiel Aguilar (@EzequielAguilar) September 2, 2026
Steve Kornacki called the Senate race in Massachusetts with 2% of the vote in.
The 80-year-old progressive beat the 47-year-old moderate.
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren backed Markey.… pic.twitter.com/BcMfeALwV9
AN 80-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO'S BEEN THERE FOR FIFTY YEARS - THIS IS THE ANTITHESIS OF THE CHANGE THESE YOUNG PROGRESSIVES ARE DEMANDING
"Young people... want people who take on power," @joshorton says in defense of 80-year-old Sen. Ed Markey, who faces 47-year-old Rep. Seth Moulton in a primary tonight.
— The Arena on CNN (@TheArenaCNN) September 1, 2026
"The guy who's been there for 50 years has taken on power? You don't see the skepticism in that argument?"… pic.twitter.com/VzISWnBmMQ
Never let a good rational argument get in the way of irrational progressives expressing their #feelz.
That's basically what this boils down to.
Also, Massachusetts is a lost cause, but we knew that.
