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Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 192

November Surprises

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Trial Balloon · Ep. 192: November Surprises

Ayanna Pressley Will Pass on a Senate Run

December 2, 2025 · 2:43 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) will run for re-election to the House next year, forgoing a run for Senate and a challenge to incumbent Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), the Boston Globe reports.

2026 Campaign MA-Sen

Ayanna Pressley Considers Senate Bid

November 4, 2025 · 5:38 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“Rep. Ayanna Pressley is seriously considering jumping into the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat currently held by fellow Democrat Ed Markey and has been checking in with allies about a possible run,” Politico reports.

“That could put the 51-year-old member of the progressive ‘Squad’ on a collision course not only with Markey, but with Rep. Seth Moulton, who launched his own primary challenge last month. Moulton, 47, has framed his bid against the 79-year-old incumbent as part of the Democratic Party’s generational upheaval.”

2026 Campaign MA-Sen

Seth Moulton to Challenge Ed Markey in a Primary

October 15, 2025 · 7:01 am ET · Leave a Comment

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) announced he would challenge Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) in 2026, the Boston Globe reports.

Politico: “Moulton, who turns 47 this month, is putting age at the center of his announcement, saying in a campaign video to be released Wednesday that Markey is ‘a good man’ but he should nevertheless move on after decades in Congress.”

2026 Campaign MA-Sen

Seth Moulton Weighs Primary Challenge to Ed Markey

September 23, 2025 · 5:00 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), “who has long pushed for a new generation of leaders in his party, is seriously considering a challenge to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) in the 2026 primary election,” the Boston Globe reports.

“If he does run, it would set up a potentially fierce battle between high-profile members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation as well as serve as a test nationally of the appetite among Democratic voters for generational change. Markey, 79, is seeking another six-year US Senate term and previously served for nearly four decades in the US House before moving to the upper chamber in 2013.”

2026 Campaign MA-Sen

Elizabeth Warren Wants Another Term

March 27, 2023 · 1:37 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) announced she’s running for another term in a video this morning.

2024 Campaign MA-Sen

Kennedy Improperly Spent $1.5 Million In Primary

October 16, 2020 · 8:01 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Rep. Joe Kennedy’s (D-MA) unsuccessful Senate campaign has self-reported a campaign finance violation to FEC in which his campaign spent $1.5 million of general election funds in final weeks of the Democratic primary, the Boston Globe reports.

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Why Joe Kennedy’s Senate Campaign Flopped

September 2, 2020 · 10:44 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Politico: “The question seemed to trail him everywhere, from the day Joe Kennedy announced he’d challenge Sen. Ed Markey in the Democratic primary to the final hours of the campaign: Why are you running?”

“In a year of campaigning across Massachusetts, Kennedy never seemed to come up with a satisfactory answer. In the end, he simply gave up trying.”

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Markey Beats Back Kennedy Challenge

September 1, 2020 · 10:14 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) has defeated Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA) in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary In Massachusetts, Decision Desk reports.

Kennedy is now the first member of his immediate family to lose a primary election in Massachusetts history.

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Markey Outflanks Kennedy by Running as Bold Insurgent

August 31, 2020 · 11:00 am ET · Leave a Comment

New York Times: “It wasn’t supposed to be this way — at least not in the minds of Massachusetts Democrats, who have spent a lifetime watching a parade of Kennedys win elections against little opposition. When Mr. Kennedy first considered leaving his House seat last year to challenge Mr. Markey in a primary race, some in the party wondered if the 74-year-old incumbent would step aside for the 39-year-old political scion.”

“Instead, Mr. Markey, who was elected to the House before Mr. Kennedy was born, has harnessed the energy of the ascendant left and wielded his rival’s gilded legacy against him. And he has used his support from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom he featured in an ad, and their joint authorship of the Green New Deal to establish himself as the clear front-runner.”

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Kennedy Scrambles to Close Gap

August 30, 2020 · 7:55 am ET · Leave a Comment

“Just two years ago, Joe Kennedy’s star was so bright that he was asked to deliver the Democratic Party’s response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech. Now, if he can’t turn things around before Tuesday’s Massachusetts Senate primary, he’ll be out of politics,” Politico reports.

“A handful of recent polls show the 39-year-old congressman trailing incumbent Sen. Ed Markey — the septuagenarian incumbent whose campaign is improbably powered by younger progressive voters. Among voters under the age of 35, one of those polls reports, Markey is leading Kennedy by an almost 2-to-1 margin.”

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Markey Opens Wide Lead Over Kennedy

August 28, 2020 · 10:17 pm ET · Leave a Comment

A new Emerson College poll in Massachusetts finds Sen. Ed Markey (D) leading Rep. Joe Kennedy (D) in the U.S. Senate primary, 56% to 44%.

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Pelosi Endorses Kennedy In Massachusetts Senate Race

August 20, 2020 · 12:51 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is endorsing Rep. Joe Kennedy in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race, putting her in the very rare position of backing a challenger to a Democratic incumbent, the Boston Globe reports.

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Massachusetts Senate Primary Is Tight

August 17, 2020 · 8:05 pm ET · Leave a Comment

A new SurveyUSA poll in Massachusetts finds Sen. Ed Markey (D) leading Democratic primary challenger Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D), 44% to 42%.

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Markey Throws Shade at Kennedy Family

August 17, 2020 · 7:52 am ET · Leave a Comment

“Sen. Ed Markey is going where few Massachusetts Democrats have dared to go before. He’s not only attacking his challenger, Rep. Joe Kennedy III, he’s throwing shade at the Kennedy family, the state’s equivalent of political royalty,” Politico reports.

“In an ever more contentious battle between a septuagenarian senator and the scion of one of the nation’s best-known dynasties, Markey is calling out specific Kennedy family members by name, needling the wealth and privilege that attaches to the family name, and even drawing from the Kennedy myth in his bid to fend off his youthful challenger.”

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Markey Opens Wide Lead In Senate Primary

August 12, 2020 · 7:10 pm ET · Leave a Comment

A new UMass Amherst poll in Massachusetts finds Sen. Ed Markey (D) leading Rep. Joe Kennedy (D) in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, 51% to 36%.

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Kennedy Hits Markey for Ignoring Towns That Don’t Exist

July 27, 2020 · 4:41 pm ET · Leave a Comment

“Over the weekend, Rep. Joseph Kennedy III’s (D-MA) campaign put out a press release condemning Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) for failing to acknowledge several Massachusetts towns in a Markey campaign map that sought to highlight his accomplishments for the state’s 351 municipalities,” the Boston Globe reports.

From the Kennedy press release: “Strangely the towns/cities of Stoughton, Blackstone, Dana, Dudley, Enfield, and Prescott do not exist in Markey’s Massachusetts.”

“The problem, of course, is that the towns of Dana, Enfield, and Prescott don’t exist in anyone’s Massachusetts: The towns are located at the bottom of the present-day Quabbin Reservoir. Dana, Enfield, and Prescott ― along with the town of Greenwich — were unincorporated, razed, and flooded in the 1930s to create the reservoir, which today supplies drinking water to 3 million people.”

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Markey Trails Kennedy By Wide Margin

May 7, 2020 · 9:07 pm ET · Leave a Comment

A new Emerson College/7 News poll finds Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) at risk of losing reelection, as he trails Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA), 58% to 42%, for the Democratic primary.

A new UMass-Lowell poll has Kennedy ahead 44% to 42%.

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

Markey Short of Signatures Ahead of May Deadline

April 7, 2020 · 7:15 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) is still short the signatures he needs to get on the Democratic primary ballot for re-election, the Boston Globe reports.

He has only about 7,000 of the 10,000 he needs, but the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically slowed efforts.

2020 Campaign MA-Sen

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Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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