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U.S. Sen. Ed Markey won the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s endorsement Saturday, defeating challenger U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton with a commanding margin of nearly 73% of delegate support at the state convention in Worcester.
“You have a choice, you have to decide what the future looks like and what you’re going to demand,” Markey told more than 4,000 delegates at the convention.
Moulton, a moderate Democrat, won nearly 27% of the delegate vote — enough to clear the 15% threshold that Massachusetts Democratic Party rules require for statewide candidates to appear on primary ballots. The result means both candidates will face voters in the September primary, even though Markey secured the official party backing.
The convention vote does not determine the primary winner, but it signals the party apparatus’s preference heading into the fall contest. Markey’s 73%-to-27% margin among delegates gives the incumbent a significant organizational advantage, though primary voters may weigh different factors than party activists.
Moulton, 47, has built his Senate campaign around the argument that the Democratic Party needs new leadership. He has called for a generational shift in Washington and has framed his challenge to Markey as part of a broader demand for changing the status quo in the party.
In heavily Democratic Massachusetts, the Senate primary contest has drawn national attention as one of the most closely watched races in the country this cycle. Markey, who has served in the Senate since winning a special election in 2013, faces a rare intraparty challenge from a sitting member of Congress.
Massachusetts’ primary election is scheduled for September.