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, according to four people granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
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.
A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll conducted at the end of October and released Monday showed Markey leading a hypothetical Senate field including Pressley and Moulton with Markey garnering 35 percent, Pressley with 21 percent and Moulton with 25 percent. The survey of 416 Massachusetts likely Democratic voters has a 6.1% margin of error.
“The Congresswoman remains focused on ending Republicans’ government shutdown, serving her district, and effectively fighting back against the White House’s attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, Black and brown folks, federal workers, and our immigrant neighbors,” Pressley spokesperson Ricardo Sánchez said in a statement Tuesday.
Even before the poll was released, Democrats were chattering about a possible Pressley candidacy.
She has a record of success running against a longtime incumbent. She was elected to her Boston-based House seat in 2018 after unseating incumbent Rep. Mike Capuano in a primary challenge. She became part of a progressive surge in Congress that brought the first four members of the Squad into office.
But she would likely start a Senate race at a financial disadvantage: Pressley only had about $148,000 cash on hand at the end of the last quarter, according to FEC filings. Markey had stockpiled about $2.7 million as of Sept. 30, while Moulton had $2.1 million.
Asked about her reelection plans while campaigning with local officials in Boston Tuesday, Pressley said she is “just very focused right now on how to mitigate the harm of this shutdown and get the government reopened.”
Markey was first elected to the House in 1976 — when Pressley was two years old. He fended off a primary challenge from another younger congressman, then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III, in 2020.
