Anti-Trans Dem Seth Moulton Loses Senate Primary to Outspoken Trans Ally Ed Markey in a Landslide

To Seth Moulton, trans kids were a liability the Democratic Party needed to abandon. But to Massachusetts voters, the only liabilities are Democrats like him.

Seth Moulton | Image: Gage Skidmore // Wikimedia Commons

Seth Moulton spent years claiming he was a trans ally. First elected to the House of Representatives in 2014, the relatively moderate Democrat and veteran from Massachusetts’ 6th district co-sponsored multiple iterations of the Equality Act as well as the Transgender Bill of Rights when it was first introduced in 2023. And that same year, he released a statement explaining his vote against an early iteration of a federal anti-trans sports bill, writing that the “bill [was] part of a broader Republican attack on the rights of transgender people—with detrimental consequences for children’s mental and physical health” and that “in the fight to uphold Title IX, we are wrong to single out transgender girls and contribute to discrimination and stigma against them.”

Above all, “our rhetoric as policymakers matters,” he wrote.

But Moulton is also ambitious. Just 4 years into his House career, he led a failed effort to oust Nancy Pelosi from her position as the House Minority Leader. The next year, he announced a long-shot bid for the presidency, and after he notably took aim at Bernie Sanders for being a “socialist,” he was ultimately forced to withdraw his campaign just four months later. He never polled higher than 2% in any survey.

Meanwhile, throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, Republicans spent hundreds of millions of dollars on anti-trans attack ads in a bid to turn trans people into a political issue. Despite the wealth of polling showing that the ads had little impact on Trump’s victory, a few Democrats weren’t convinced. Indeed, Moulton was the first to break. “I have two little girls,” Moulton told the New York Times just 2 days after the election, “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.” Although New York House Democrat Tom Suozzi made a similar statement in the same article, Moulton’s remarks generated much more outrage after he doubled down a few days later on CNN:

“I was just speaking authentically as a parent about one of many issues where Democrats are just out of touch with the majority of Americans. And I stand by my position, even though I may not have used exactly the right words. And I’m willing to have this debate, as I’ve been having with LGBTQ advocates and others, some of whom agree with me and others who don’t, but we’re engaging in a thoughtful debate. On the other hand, some of the people like you’ve mentioned [referring to trans advocates who publicly criticized his remarks] are more interested in shaming fellow Democrats, shaming the majority of voters, when they simply don’t meet their ideological purity test.”

11 months later, those comments would come back to bite him. In October, he announced he was challenging incumbent Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, a progressive firebrand and outspoken trans ally, for his seat. Just a few days after his announcement, on October 18th, Markey and Moulton both appeared at the No Kings Rally in Boston. And the contrast couldn’t have been sharper: Markey, draped in a transgender pride flag, spoke about the importance of fighting for trans rights; when Moulton took the stage, the crowd responded by booing him.

Despite Markey’s age—79—and the need for generational change being focal points of his campaign, his standing among Massachusetts’ notably progressive electorate never recovered. Early that November, it was revealed he only rebuked AIPAC after they refused to guarantee that they’d endorse his campaign. By the end of the year, polls were consistently finding that Moulton was trailing by over 20 points. Then Markey, who was endorsed by trans-led PAC Christopher Street Project and LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign, leaned in.

“Congressman Moulton decided that he was gonna throw trans kids under the bus, the political bus, and blame them for the loss of the 2024 election,” he said at their July debate, “those kids are vulnerable. Those kids need love. Those kids don’t need to be scapegoated and blamed for what was wrong with the Democratic Party.”

Seeing the writing on the wall, Moulton eventually tried to fully walk back his 2024 remarks.

“To anyone hurt by my comments, I’m sorry because that was not my intention,” he said at the August debate. “My intention was to say that we need to take on these issues.”

Despite his apologies, to Massachusetts Democrats, his rhetoric as a policymaker mattered.

On Tuesday, Markey overwhelmingly defeated Moulton. The race was called 28 minutes after polls closed with only 2% of the votes counted. As of the writing of this article, Markey is currently leading 74%-26%.

Speaking to Transitics on Markey’s win, Christopher Street Project executive director Tyler Hack celebrated Moulton’s loss as a loss for anti-trans Democrats nationwide:

“Tonight, anti-trans politics lost,” she said. “Massachusetts rejected the idea that attacking transgender people is a shortcut to political power. Voters chose a different path: one where equality is not negotiable, cruelty is not courage, and transgender people do not have to disappear for Democrats to succeed.”

And she’s right. In Iowa and Ohio, a number of Democrats have taken anti-trans positions in recent months, including gubernatorial nominees Rob Sand and Amy Acton as well as Iowa Congressional nominee Sarah Trone Garriott. Some strategists have argued, without evidence, that Democrats need to take these positions in order to win. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, anti-trans politics just cost Seth Moulton his career, and come January, he’ll be out of the House.

More likely than not, he’ll be remembered for one thing and one thing only: when his rhetoric mattered most, he didn’t hesitate to throw trans kids under the bus.