Markey Victory Speech
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The Democrat who made abandoning transgender people into the post-2024 capitulation script for “moderate” Democrats has now been abandoned himself, by the voters of his own state. Congressman Seth Moulton, the originator of the current wave of anti-transgender Democrats, blamed Democrats’ 2024 defeat in part on the party’s support for transgender people in the immediate aftermath of the election, fearmongering over transgender athletes and calling trans girls “male” athletes who would run over his daughters on the playing field. His remarks sparked fury in his own state, even as he opted to run for higher office, challenging Senator Ed Markey in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary. Rather than run away from transgender people, though, Markey used the moment to differentiate himself, championing transgender people at every turn, and the issue became a defining point of difference between the two candidates at debates and rallies. Now we have a final result: Markey has trounced Moulton, winning 65 to 35 in a race that some polls once showed as fairly close early on, and come January, Moulton will hold no elected office at all, having given up his safe House seat to run.
In 2024, in the aftermath of Kamala Harris’s loss to Donald Trump, Moulton became one of the earliest to embrace a new, albeit rare, line of thinking among some Democrats: that transgender individuals were to blame for the election, and that sports bans on transgender youth are good to embrace. Such bans have come with proposals to genitally inspect student athletes, and in Utah, officials secretly investigated a girl’s sex all the way back to kindergarten after the parents of the girls she had defeated complained. In an interview with The New York Times the day after Trump’s victory, Moulton said, “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.” Then, following the backlash, he doubled down in a Washington Post op-ed titled “I’m done with Democratic purity tests” and declared that “the backlash has only served to reinforce my original point.”
And backlash he did receive. Immediately after his comments, his constituents pushed back: hundreds of people gathered outside his Salem office waving pride flags, demanding to be heard. “To say that his kids can get run over by people who are previously male shows not only his ignorance about what transgender is, it shows how he is willing to make the most vulnerable people in our community more vulnerable,” said Ward 5 Councilor Jeff Cohen, who spoke at the rally. Not long after, organizers launched a concerted effort to primary him and remove him from office. Moulton attempted to sidestep that fight by giving up his safe House seat entirely and running for higher office instead, challenging Senator Markey, the older Democratic incumbent, for his seat. His old seat will not miss him: on the same night Moulton lost, Dan Koh won the Democratic primary to replace him. Koh, a former senior Biden White House official and chief of staff to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, is heavily favored in November, and he pledges to “fight to ensure transgender Americans have access to healthcare, education, and safe, welcoming communities.”
Immediately, transgender issues became a differentiator between the two candidates. At Boston’s No Kings rally last October, Moulton was booed as he took the stage; Markey came out draped in a trans pride flag and declared to raucous applause that “trans rights are human rights.” The topic dominated the candidates’ debates: in July, Markey said Moulton had “thrown trans kids under the bus” and noted that the Supreme Court’s ruling greenlighting trans sports bans “took the same position that Congressman Moulton took last year,” and by the August debate, Moulton was issuing a half-hearted mea culpa, saying he was "sorry if my comments hurt you.” Meanwhile, transgender people and LGBTQ+ organizations organized heavily to keep Markey in office, and those efforts succeeded.
There is good evidence that transgender issues were a major part of Markey’s victory, too. In the final days of the campaign, a UMass/Amherst poll asked primary voters how a candidate who embraces anti-trans positions or policise would impact their vote. In that poll, a whopping 67% stated it would make their vote less likely for that candidate. Only 11% stated it would make their vote more likely for that candidate. Importantly, this also includes independent voters who vote in the Democratic Primary, which could be a major lesson to Democrats elsewhere that want to run on anti-tarns policies.
There is good evidence that transgender issues were a major part of Markey’s victory, too. In the final weeks of the campaign, a UMass Amherst/WCVB poll asked likely Democratic primary voters how a candidate who “expressed positions opposing transgender rights or policies” would fare with them. A whopping 67% said they would be less likely to support that candidate; only 11% said such positions would make their support more likely. Importantly, the poll’s voter pool includes the unenrolled independent voters who can cast ballots in Massachusetts’s semi-open Democratic primary, which should be a major lesson for Democrats elsewhere who believe running on anti-trans policies will win over the middle.
When Markey took the stage on Tuesday night to celebrate his victory, he made clear who he credited with helping him across the finish line. The very first person he put on stage was Tyler Hack, the transgender founder and executive director of the Christopher Street Project, the trans-led political organization that made his race its marquee endorsement, who introduced Markey to the crowd. Hack celebrated Markey’s allyship in stark terms: “After the 2024 election, a lot of transgender people were terrified. And I remember thinking: Who is going to stay? When people decide we are too controversial, when defending us stops being expedient, who is going to stay? Ed Markey stayed. Senator, you stayed.” When Markey took the microphone, he concurred, thanking “Tyler Hack and the Christopher Street Project” by name from the podium: “I am so proud of your historic work.”
Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.
Update: It would appear trans flags have appeared outside of Moulton’s district office with a “for rent” sign. Curtesy of Jennifer G on Bluesky.
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