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Ed Markey — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Tenure

Markey was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the National Journal gave him a "Composite Liberal" score of 89.2.

In December 2007, Markey became the first US politician to use Second Life, through which he addressed the delegates of the UNFCCC in Bali as part of OneClimate's Virtual Bali event. It was estimated that the carbon dioxide he saved by not flying to Bali was around 5.5 tons. Pressure from Markey prompted BP to provide a live underwater video feed showing oil leaking out of a pipe in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Markey has been a longtime critic of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and has been critical of the NRC's decision-making on the proposed Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design and the NRC response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

In reply to Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin's position on how the American Clean Energy and Security Act (also known as Waxman-Markey, named after Markey and Henry Waxman) could have a negative impact for Alaskans, Markey wrote an article criticizing Palin's inaction on global warming and her environmental positions.

Markey sarcastically suggested in August 2010 that global warming deniers form their own country on an iceberg: "An iceberg four times the size of Manhattan has broken off Greenland, creating plenty of room for global warming deniers to start their own country." Markey also said that, at the time, 2010 was the hottest recorded year and that "scientists agree Arctic ice is a canary in a coal mine that provides clear warnings on climate". Markey has derided Republicans' stance on global warming, stating during a hearing: "I won't physically rise, because I'm worried that Republicans will overturn the law of gravity, sending us floating about the room."

In January 2011, House Republicans eliminated the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, which Nancy Pelosi created in 2006 and Markey chaired.

Markey was one of the 31 House Democrats who voted not to count Ohio's 20 electoral votes in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. In 2004, President George W. Bush (the Republican nominee) had defeated Senator John Kerry (the Democratic nominee) in Ohio by 118,457 votes. Without Ohio's electoral votes, the 2004 presidential election would have been decided by the U.S. House of Representatives, with each state having one vote, as dictated by the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Markey introduced legislation to change the duration of Daylight Saving Time and to increasing privacy controls over children online.

Markey drew some controversy through his proposal to introduce legislation that deals with amusement parks' roller coasters, believing that newer, faster rides that exert greater G-pressures on the human body are dangerous mentally and physically, despite a lack of concrete evidence to support these claims, and contrary to studies that affirmed the safety of roller coasters in general.

In 2009, Markey sponsored the Internet Freedom Preservation Act to enact principles of net neutrality. The proposed legislation received support from a few dozen co-sponsors and public interest organizations but ultimately died in committee before enactment.

In 2003, Markey called attention to the lack of security surrounding air cargo placed on commercial passenger planes, arguing that if passenger baggage is screened for explosive devices, cargo on the plane should be as well. In 2007, he succeeded in getting a 100% air cargo screening requirement signed into law. In the law codifying the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, Markey wrote the mandate requiring all cargo on passenger planes to be screened.

Elections

On December 27, 2012, Markey was the first to announce his candidacy to run in a special election to fill Kerry's seat after President Barack Obama nominated him for U.S. Secretary of State. Several politicians, including Kerry, endorsed Markey even before the Senate confirmed Kerry. On April 30, 2013, Markey won the Democratic nomination by defeating fellow Congressman Stephen Lynch in the primary election. He defeated Republican nominee Gabriel E. Gomez in the general special election on June 25 and completed the remaining 17 months of Kerry's term.

Markey is the longest-tenured House member ever elected to the Senate, with his 36-plus years of service exceeding that of Frederick H. Gillett, who served in the House for 32 years before moving to the upper chamber in 1925. He is the 11th oldest candidate to win a U.S. Senate special election out of more than 170 people since the passage of the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Markey sought a full six-year term in 2014. He defeated Republican Hopkinton selectman Brian Herr with 62% of the vote.

In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Markey endorsed fellow Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. After Warren withdrew in early 2020, he endorsed Joe Biden.

Several Massachusetts Democrats announced primary challenges to Markey in the September 1, 2020 election, but all but 4th district Representative Joe Kennedy III dropped out, leaving Kennedy as the sole challenger. On September 13, 2019, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with whom Markey has collaborated on the proposed Green New Deal, endorsed Markey.

Markey defeated Kennedy with 55.6% of the vote, with overwhelming margins in Boston and the surrounding suburbs, including Kennedy's Newton, and in the college towns of Western Massachusetts. The primary race was seen by many as a showdown between the Democratic establishment, represented by Kennedy, and its new and growing progressive wing, embodied by Markey. Despite the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's longstanding opposition to Democratic primary challengers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed Kennedy, whose fundraising and campaigning efforts she credited for returning the House to Democratic control in the 2018 midterm elections. Meanwhile, Markey had the support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Ocasio-Cortez, and the youth-led Sunrise Movement founded in 2017 to promote the Green New Deal as a solution to the climate crisis.

Markey defeated Republican Kevin O'Connor in the general election.

In October 2024, Markey said he intended to run for another Senate term in 2026: "I'm ready to stand for reelection and that is my full intention". From the onset of his campaign, his age was a central issue. A 2024 University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB poll found that 72% of Massachusetts residents supported age limits for US senators. Markey, who would be 80 years old on Election Day, fended off these concerns, saying, "I'm ready for the fight [...] I am more energized [than ever]".

In October 2025, US Representative Seth Moulton announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for US Senate in Massachusetts, running against Markey. Moulton, who is 33 years younger than Markey, made generational change a central issue of his campaign. Markey made his progressive policies a focus of his campaign, highlighting his support of Medicare for All and pushing back against President Donald Trump.

During the primary campaign, Markey was endorsed by a slate of progressive politicians, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

On September 1, 2026, Markey defeated Moulton in the primary with approximately 65% of the vote.

Climate change

In November 2018, Markey was among 25 Democratic senators to cosponsor a resolution in response to the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change report and National Climate Assessment findings. The resolution affirmed the senators' acceptance of the findings and support for bold action to address climate change. In 2019, the League of Conservation Voters, which works to elect pro-environment candidates, endorsed Markey.

Markey is the Senate author of the Green New Deal. In February 2019, Markey and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released a 14-page summary of their Green New Deal plan to address climate change. It calls for implementing the "social cost of carbon" that was part of the Obama administration's plans to address climate change and transitioning the United States to 100% renewable, zero-emission energy sources, zero-emission vehicles, and high-speed rail systems. It also aims to provide new jobs and alleviate poverty. On March 26, in what Democrats called a "stunt", Republicans called for an early vote without allowing discussion or expert testimony. Markey said Republicans were trying to "make a mockery" of the Green New Deal debate and called the vote a "sham". In protest, Democrats, including Markey, voted "present" or against the bill, resulting in a 57–0 defeat on the Senate floor.

In March 2019, Markey was one of 11 senators to sponsor the Climate Security Act of 2019, legislation to form a new group within the State Department to develop strategies to integrate climate science and data into national security operations as well as to restore the post of special envoy for the Arctic, a group that President Trump dismantled in 2017. The envoy would advise the President and the administration on the potential effects of climate on national security and be responsible for facilitating all interagency communication between federal science and security agencies.

Markey was a member of the Senate Democrats' Special Committee on the Climate Crisis, which published a report of its findings in August 2020.

Foreign policy

In December 2016, Markey and Senators Chris Coons and Marco Rubio suggested to the Department of State that the U.S. curtail assistance to the Philippines' law enforcement units due to alleged extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations in Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's drug war, in adherence to the Leahy Law. In April 2019, Markey and four other Democratic and Republican senators introduced a resolution urging the release of Philippine senator Leila de Lima, a key proponent of the inquiry on the Duterte administration's reported human rights violations who has been detained since 2017 for suspected drug trafficking; the senators believed that De Lima's detention was politically motivated. In January 2020, Markey revealed that the Philippine government had declared him and Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy (principal sponsor of the Leahy Law) persona non grata to the country. After Duterte stepped down from office in 2022, Markey visited the Philippines and met with De Lima privately.

In October 2017, Markey condemned the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.

In 2018, Markey cosponsored the Countering the Chinese Government and Communist Party's Political Influence Operations Act, a bill introduced by Rubio and Catherine Cortez Masto that would give the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) the authority to create an interagency task force to examine Chinese attempts to influence the U.S. and key allies.

In October 2018, Markey was one of eight senators to sign a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats requesting a classified briefing on what the American intelligence community knew about threats to U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi so that the senators could fulfill their "oversight obligation" as members of Congress. In March 2019, Markey was one of nine Democratic senators to sign a letter to Salman of Saudi Arabia requesting the release of human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair and writer Raif Badawi, women's rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul and Samar Badawi, and Dr. Walid Fitaih. The senators wrote, "Not only have reputable international organizations detailed the arbitrary detention of peaceful activists and dissidents without trial for long periods, but the systematic discrimination against women, religious minorities and mistreatment of migrant workers and others has also been well-documented."

In November 2018, Markey, Senators Chris Coons and Elizabeth Warren and a bipartisan group of lawmakers sent the Trump administration a letter raising concerns about the People's Republic of China's undue influence on media outlets and academic institutions in the United States. They wrote: "In American news outlets, Beijing has used financial ties to suppress negative information about the CCP... Beijing has also sought to use relationships with American academic institutions and student groups to shape public discourse."

In February 2019, ahead of the 2019 North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit, Markey said that it was "pretty clear that Kim wants to have a personal meeting with Trump with hopes that he can, in fact, elicit concessions from President Trump that might not otherwise be possible if it was just our diplomats talking one-on-one" and that the US "could run the risk that Kim is given concessions which are not accompanied by real concessions that the United States is receiving in return from Kim and his regime." Markey called for Trump to receive commitments on denuclearization from Kim Jong-un before making commitments in return.

In April 2019, Markey was among 34 senators to sign a letter to President Trump encouraging him "to listen to members of your own Administration and reverse a decision that will damage our national security and aggravate conditions inside Central America", asserting that Trump had "consistently expressed a flawed understanding of U.S. foreign assistance" since becoming president and that he was "personally undermining efforts to promote U.S. national security and economic prosperity" by preventing the use of Fiscal Year 2018 national security funding. The senators argued that foreign assistance to Central American countries created less migration to the U.S. by helping to improve conditions in those countries.

In October 2020, Markey accused Turkey, a NATO ally, of inciting war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and called on the Trump administration to immediately suspend U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan sent through the Pentagon's "building partner assistance program". According to critics, the aid could be used in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He co-signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that read: "If Turkey is unwilling to step back from active engagement in the conflict, then the State Department should immediately suspend all sales and transfers of military equipment to Ankara."

In January 2024, Markey voted for a resolution proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders to apply the human rights provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act to U.S. aid to Israel's military. The proposal was defeated, 72 to 11. In April 2025, Markey voted for a pair of resolutions Sanders proposed to cancel the Trump administration's sales of $8.8 billion in bombs and other munitions to Israel. The proposals were defeated, 82 to 15.

On October 10, 2002, Markey voted in favor of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, authorizing the use of the United States Armed Forces against Saddam Hussein's government in what became Operation Iraqi Freedom. As of March 2020, Markey has said that voting for the authorization was a "mistake", and that he did so because "George Bush lied, Donald Rumsfeld lied, Dick Cheney lied to the American people about the presence of nuclear weapons in Iraq. I'm still angry about that lie to the American people."

Gun law

Markey supports gun control, including improved background checks, ending illegal gun trafficking, and closing loopholes on gun purchases.

In 2015, he proposed a "smart gun" bill that aimed to equip handguns with technology, making them usable by only the purchaser.

In January 2016, Markey led 18 senators in signing a letter to Thad Cochran and Barbara Mikulski requesting that the Labor, Health and Education subcommittee hold a hearing on whether to allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to fund a study of gun violence and "the annual appropriations rider that some have interpreted as preventing it" with taxpayer dollars. The senators noted their support for taking steps "to fund gun-violence research, because only the United States government is in a position to establish an integrated public-health research agenda to understand the causes of gun violence and identify the most effective strategies for prevention."

After the Orlando nightclub shooting, Markey called for more gun regulations and supported the Feinstein Amendment, which would have made it illegal for suspected terrorists to buy guns. He also supports universal background checks.

In response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Markey said, "This Congress has the responsibility to make sure the NRA stands for 'not relevant anymore' in American politics, and we have to begin this debate now." He co-sponsored a proposal to ban bump stocks, which make semi-automatic weapons act like automatic weapons.

In November 2017, Markey was a cosponsor of the Military Domestic Violence Reporting Enhancement Act, a bill to create a charge of domestic violence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and stipulate that convictions must be reported to federal databases to keep abusers from purchasing firearms within three days in an attempt to close a loophole in the UCMJ whereby convicted abusers retain the ability to purchase firearms.

In January 2019, Markey was one of 40 senators to introduce the Background Check Expansion Act, a bill requiring background checks to sell or transfer all firearms, including unlicensed sellers. Exceptions to the bill's background check requirement included transfers between members of law enforcement, loaning firearms for either hunting or sporting events temporarily, giving firearms to members of one's immediate family, firearms being transferred as part of an inheritance, or giving a firearm to another person temporarily for immediate self-defense.

Internet

On October 27, 2006, Markey called for the arrest of security researcher Christopher Soghoian for creating a website to generate fake boarding passes. At 2 AM on October 28, 2006, FBI agents seized computers and other materials from Soghoian's house.

On October 29, 2006, Markey issued a statement revising his previous comments, stating that the Department of Homeland Security should instead "put him to work showing public officials how easily our security can be compromised". The statement was critical of Soghoian's disclosure method—deeming it "ill-considered"—but also said that "he should not go to jail for his bad judgment".

In May 2014, days before the FCC was scheduled to rewrite its net neutrality rules, Markey was one of 11 senators to sign a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler arguing that Wheeler's proposal would destroy net neutrality and urging the FCC to "consider reclassifying Internet providers to make them more like traditional phone companies, over which the agency has clear authority to regulate more broadly."

In September 2017, Markey was one of nine senators to sign a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai accusing the FCC of failing "to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to comment on the tens of thousands of filed complaints that directly shed light on proposed changes to existing net neutrality protections."

In March 2018, Markey was one of ten senators to sign a letter spearheaded by Jeff Merkley lambasting Pai's proposal to cut the Lifeline program during a period when roughly 6.5 million people in poor communities relied on it for access to high-speed internet, writing that it was Pai's "obligation to the American public, as the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to improve the Lifeline program and ensure that more Americans can afford access, and have means of access, to broadband and phone service." The senators also wrote, "Lifeline reaches more Americans in need of access to communication services."

In February 2019, Markey, Richard Blumenthal, and Josh Hawley sent Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter about Project Atlas and its relevance to "longstanding concerns that Facebook has used its products to deeply intrude into personal privacy."

LGBT rights

In 1996, Markey voted against the Defense of Marriage Act.

In September 2014, Markey was one of 69 members of the US House and Senate to sign a letter to FDA commissioner Sylvia Burwell requesting that the FDA revise its policy banning donation of corneas and other tissues by men who have had sex with another man in the preceding five years.

In May 2017, Markey was one of 46 senators to introduce the Equality Act of 2017, described by Representative David Cicilline as ensuring "that every LGBT person can live their lives free from the fear of discrimination. Above all, it's about honoring the values that have guided our nation since its founding. It's critical that Congress pass the Equality Act into law."

In October 2018, Markey was one of 20 senators to sign a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to reverse the rolling back of a policy that granted visas to same-sex partners of LGBT diplomats who had unions that were not recognized by their home countries, writing that too many places around the world have seen LGBT individuals "subjected to discrimination and unspeakable violence, and receive little or no protection from the law or local authorities" and that refusing to let LGBT diplomats bring their partners to the US would be equivalent of upholding "the discriminatory policies of many countries around the world."

In June 2019, Markey was one of 18 senators to sign a letter to Pompeo requesting an explanation of a State Department decision not to issue an official statement that year commemorating Pride Month nor to issue the annual cable outlining activities for embassies commemorating Pride Month. They also asked why the LGBT special envoy position remained vacant and asserted that "preventing the official flying of rainbow flags and limiting public messages celebrating Pride Month signals to the international community that the United States is abandoning the advancement of LGBTI rights as a foreign policy priority."

In March 2023, Markey and Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced the Transgender Bill of Rights, a resolution that recognizes the federal government's duty to protect the rights of transgender and nonbinary people. The bill strives to codify under law protections to ensure trans and nonbinary Americans are not discriminated against for their gender identity or gender expression.

Ed Markey

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‘Return To McCarthyism’: Democratic Senator Calls Trump Authoritarian For Targeting Elitist Institution’s Funding

Ed Markey

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‘Return To McCarthyism’: Democratic Senator Calls Trump Authoritarian For Targeting Elitist Institution’s Funding

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Where does Ed Markey rank?

Ed Markey across IJR

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