Sen. Ed Markey brought some of the most notable names in the Democratic Party and progressive politics to Boston for a Saturday campaign rally in one of his final pitches to voters before Tuesday’s primary against Congressman Seth Moulton.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — an independent who champions progressive and Democrat causes — spoke to a packed house at the IBEW Local 103 headquarters in Dorchester.
“By sending Ed and Elizabeth to the Senate, you have sent a dynamic duo,” Sanders told an enthusiastic crowd.
“They’re standing up to oligarchy, that is fighting for the working class of this country. They are a great team representing Massachusetts and working families all over this country, thank you for sending them to the senate,” Sanders continued.
“Ed is prepared to try to understand where we are today and is supporting real solutions to the crisis facing working families,” he said, going on a minutes-long tirade against President Trump.
Sanders, Warren and Pressley all centered their speeches around Trump, promoting Markey as the consistent and proven challenger to Trump and Congressional Republicans in Washington — a tried and true tactic used by Democratic politicians across the Bay State.
Sen. Warren came out to a massive applause, and like Sanders, promoted Markey as the proven fighter Massachusetts needs to fend off the Trump administration and its polices, taking a particular shot at billionaires who she says “call the shots.”
“They’re the ones who make sure that things go well for them and for their friends and for their kids and for the kids of the President of the United States. We’ve got cheating. We’ve got talk of bribes! … And we’ve got a president who not only presides over this rot, he goes around the world and embarrasses us,” Warren said. “This is a time when we need a strong, progressive team fighting back.”
Pressley, amid her attacks on Trump, also slammed Moulton without even mentioning his name.
“I don’t want you to question if you’re having a United States Senator representing this great Commonwealth who goes whichever way the wind blows. No,” Pressley said, indirectly referring to Moulton’s 2024 comments where he stated his discomfort with Trans athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.
After originally standing by his comments, Moulton walked them back amid a rush of criticism from Democrats across Massachusetts and the rest of the country, including the state’s Democratic Party.
“Massachusetts Democrats don’t pander or throw their neighbors under the bus,” she said. “We stand up straight and we fight like hell.”
Markey and Moulton, who are ideologically a near match, have tried nearly everything to separate themselves from each other, often resorting to mudslinging — accusing one another of using their positions in Congress to conduct insider trading, accepting campaign donations from corporate PACs, and more.
The need for separation has also led the Markey campaign to gathering a laundry list of key endorsements, including big-ticket names like Sanders, Pressley, and Warren to capitalize on the fervor Massachusetts Democrat voters have for the party’s top figureheads.
Warren, Sanders and Pressley also defended Markey’s increasing age.
With the senator turning 80 this past July, Moulton has highlighted the need to replace an aging establishment on Capitol Hill with younger, fresher Democratic faces.
“He is not fickle. He is steady. He is non-new to this. He has been true to this, the work of justice, the work of equality. He loves the people of Massachusetts, and he fights for us every single day,” said Pressley.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell also stumped for Markey and worked to fend off attacks against his age, framing his over 50 years in Congress as having given him the needed experience to effectively take on Trump and Republicans.
“For 50 years, he has demonstrated how young and fabulous he is. He has been a leader, exercising leadership every single day. Experience matters,” Campbell said, before highlighting her own office’s 60 lawsuits against the Trump administration.
After posing with Warren, Pressley and Sanders on stage, Markey thanked the three political allies, calling the campaign event “the greatest gathering of progressive voices on one stage.”
“Thank you all for everything that you do it, because this is the greatest gathering of progressive voices on one stage, our ‘progressive-palooza.’ They are all here, all assembled because we’re coming down to a referendum here in Massachusetts on who should be the senator for the next six years on the floor of the Senate along with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders,” Markey said.
Markey and Moulton will face off in the primary election on Tuesday, the winner of which will take on Republican candidate John Deaton and Communist candidate Joe Tache in the general election in November.
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