Why older lawmakers may wait too long to step aside

By: Nancy Forster-Holt

Outlets: Rhode Island Current

Published: October 12, 2026

Words: 1,394

Last Updated: 6 days ago


Body Text Preview

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey is 80 and has served in Congress for half a century. His Democratic primary challenger in Massachusetts, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, is 47 and made generational change a centerpiece of his campaign. Markey won the Sept. 1, 2026, primary anyway by nearly 30 percentage points.

He’s not the …