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Sen. Ed Markey spent the final debate of the Democratic U.S. Senate primary listing laws he wrote. Congressman Seth Moulton spent it agreeing that Markey wrote them, then arguing that people in Massachusetts still cannot pay their electricity bills.
That exchange, repeated in one form or another across energy, technology and the candidates' competing claims of accomplishment, defined an hour broadcast Thursday night from WCVB Channel 5 in partnership with WBUR and the Boston Globe. It was the last scheduled meeting between the two men before Massachusetts Democrats begin voting. Early voting starts Saturday. The primary is Sept. 1.
Markey, who has served in Congress since 1976, is seeking a third full Senate term. Moulton, a congressman from the North Shore and Merrimack Valley, is trying to unseat him.
A viewer question on energy sets the terms
The pattern surfaced first on a viewer question about energy costs, which asked the candidates to choose among expanded nuclear generation, more natural gas and pipeline capacity, or producing and storing liquefied natural gas off-peak to blunt winter price spikes.
Markey answered with legislation. He introduced the Green New Deal with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seven years ago. He secured offshore wind funding in the 2022 climate law, he said, enough for 5,000 megawatts in a state that uses 13,000 megawatts a day. He said the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the $20 billion climate bank he wrote, which he said would eventually send hundreds of millions of dollars into Massachusetts.
Moulton said he had co-sponsored the Green New Deal and supported the work. Then he set it against a household bill.
"I respect your work, Senator, and I supported it," he said. "But the reality today is that it hasn't been enough, because Massachusetts has twice the energy bills of the average American."
Markey treated the concession as an attack.
"Look at the legislation which Congressman Moulton is talking about. Is my legislation," he said. "Congressman Moulton was not working on energy legislation in the House of Representatives. He's been there for 12 years. So the progress has been made by me."
He then named the groups backing him: the Sunrise Movement, the League of Conservation Voters, Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders.
"The endorsement I'm looking for is from Massachusetts voters," Moulton said. "If you think this is working, if you are happy with your electricity bills tonight, then vote for the senator and what he's done."
Neither man named an energy source he would oppose. Moulton said costs could come down without new natural gas supply, but only with investment in what he called next-generation solutions, citing a fusion company that began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has announced it is building its first facility in Virginia.
The same argument, applied to technology
The structure returned on artificial intelligence. Markey said he led the Senate fight against an effort to preempt state regulation and listed his own measures, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, a chatbot bill he said cleared the Commerce Committee two weeks ago. Both men said communities should be able to veto data centers.
Moulton pointed to the 1996 telecommunications law Markey wrote.
"They haven't been enough," he said of Markey's technology laws. "So I think it's great that you're trying to undo the mistakes of your 1996 bill, but it's not enough."
Markey called that ridiculous and said the protections were his. "Those are my laws on the books," he said, adding that Moulton had "kind of discovered" the issue in the six months since he began campaigning for the Senate.
Asked whether he personally uses artificial intelligence tools, Markey said he uses whatever comes up on his iPhone or iPad and did not know which companies were involved. Moulton said he uses the technology carefully and called the answer an argument for new leadership.
Two explanations for why the results lag
The two men also offered different explanations for why Democratic policy has not produced the outcomes voters want. Markey pointed outward, to President Donald Trump and the war in Iran, which he called illegal and unconstitutional and returned to on questions about groceries, energy, health care and Asia policy. He said Trump had killed the clean energy build-out after taking $500 million from the oil, gas and coal industries, a figure he did not source, and said Moulton voted last December for a $1 trillion defense budget the administration is using to fight the war.
Moulton pointed inward, at his own party. He said the Democratic establishment under Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has failed to win majorities, and that the 2018 House majority his political action committee, Serve America, helped build produced an impeachment that died in a Senate Democrats had not flipped. He said he voted against the defense bill after the war in Iran began, and noted that Markey voted to authorize the Iraq War in 2002 and for defense bills while that war was underway. WBUR, fact-checking the Aug. 3 debate, rated Markey's funding claim mostly wrong, finding Moulton supported a defense authorization measure rather than the appropriations that released the money.
Moulton's own accomplishment claims drew no similar scrutiny onstage. Asked what he would do in the Senate that he had not done in the House, he cited 988, the national mental health hotline he wrote with a Republican veteran, and said a recent study found teen suicide is down 11 percent because of the law, which he described as saving a planeload of young Americans every month. He did not identify the study or say what population or baseline the figure measures. He also cited the American High-Speed Rail Act, which he said would connect Boston and Springfield in 45 minutes, without giving a cost, route or opening date.
Health care, ICE and transgender athletes
On health care, the clearest policy divide held. Markey said he supports Medicare for All and that Moulton does not. Moulton said the two agree on universal coverage and pushed workforce development to address shortages of primary care doctors and home health aides. Markey said he is working with Rep. Ayanna Pressley to stop the deportation of 45,000 Haitians whose status he said keeps hospitals and nursing homes staffed.
Both said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished. Moulton said immigration enforcement should return to the Justice Department and that ICE officers should be prosecuted. Markey said he voted against the agency's creation and has introduced a repeal of qualified immunity for its officers, but did not name a successor agency.
Asked as a yes-or-no question whether transgender athletes should take part in girls' sports, Markey said yes and said Moulton had thrown transgender children "under the political bus" after the 2024 election. Moulton, pressed twice, said they should, "with a discussion about where we have issues of safety and fairness," and apologized again for his 2024 remarks.
Money, polling and a closing truce
The money fight that dominated the Aug. 3 debate returned briefly. Markey said Moulton has taken $340,000 in corporate political action committee money in two years. Moulton has called that false and pointed viewers to fact checks on his website; he said Markey took $62,000 from a national fund raised to flip the Senate. Markey said he is helping Democratic candidates in Texas, Maine, Ohio, North Carolina and Alaska.
A University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB poll released Aug. 17 put Markey at 60 percent and Moulton at 32 percent with leaners, with 7 percent unsure, among 445 self-identified Democratic primary voters. The margin of error was 5.8 percentage points, and the survey was in the field Aug. 5-12.
Before closing, moderator Ed Harding asked each man to name something he admires in the other. Markey thanked Moulton for his military service. Moulton thanked Markey for five decades of it, then opened his closing statement by saying he does not disagree with Markey's policies.
"I'm running against a Washington establishment that puts personal power over public service," he said.
Markey closed with his father's milk truck route in Malden and the porch where he grew up, and said Trump is attacking the dreams of children on porches across the country.
