Ed Markey and Seth Moulton met Thursday in Needham for their third and final Massachusetts Senate primary debate, and the last face-off before the Sept. 1 primary quickly became a fight over who is better equipped to lead the party, police new technology and speak to worried voters.
The debate gave Moulton one more chance to argue that Markey, 80, is the wrong choice for a changing political moment. Markey, who has built his campaign around climate and health care, answered by leaning into the progressive lane and by defending his record as the polls keep showing him ahead by double digits in two statewide surveys this week.
The sharpest exchange came when the candidates were asked about transgender athletes. Moulton offered an expanded apology for comments he made about transgender children and said three times on Thursday that he was sorry if he hurt anyone because that was not his intention. He also said he would not want his two young daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete,” but said transgender athletes should be allowed to participate in girls’ sports, with a discussion about safety and fairness.
That left him trying to thread a narrow line between remorse and the same concern that fueled the original criticism. Markey seized on that gap, saying transgender athletes should be allowed to participate in girls’ sports and arguing that after the 2024 election Congress should have been loving those kids, not turning them into political fodder. His line was blunt: “Congressman Moulton threw those kids under the political bus after the election of 2024, he just turned them into political fodder that made them afraid.”
AI brought the age argument into sharper focus. Markey said, “I use whatever is inside my iPhone or my iPad, whatever comes up,” and later added that “It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s called Siri or it’s called Claude.... we need to build safeguards around it.” He compared the issue to cars, saying an automobile needs seat belts, airbags and brakes no matter the make.
Moulton called that answer “potentially disqualifying,” saying, “With all due respect, senator, if you don’t even know what you’re using on your phone or your iPad, this is why we need a new generation of leaders to regulate these technologies to make sure that they are safe.” He followed by saying, “If he can’t even tell the difference between Siri and Claude, we have no hope of him regulating these issues effectively.”
The exchange mattered because it turned a debate about policy into a referendum on judgment. Markey’s answer suggested a basic case for rules: whatever the technology is called, the government should build safeguards around it. Moulton’s answer was more political than technical. At 47, he cast himself as proof that the party needs younger leaders to understand and regulate fast-moving tools without fumbling the names on the screen.
What comes next is simple. There are no more debates. Voters in Massachusetts now have the arguments the candidates wanted to make in public, and they have the polls showing Markey ahead, before they decide whether Moulton’s call for generational change can catch up before the Sept. 1 primary.
