Good morning. If you fell asleep before the polls closed, welcome back — a lot happened while you were out. Here's your primary night hangover cure, one cup at a time.

The Lead

The generational-change movement crashed into Massachusetts and mostly lost.

Nationally, 2026 was supposed to be the year Democratic voters started clearing out their elders. It happened in Connecticut last month. It's rattling incumbents in Rhode Island right now. But in Massachusetts, 80-year-old Senator Ed Markey didn't just survive Congressman Seth Moulton's "time for a new generation" challenge — he demolished him, winning roughly 65 percent of the vote and carrying all but 12 municipalities in the state, including Salem, which Moulton calls home. Markey's margin actually topped his 2020 blowout of Joe Kennedy III. Up and down the ballot, the pattern repeated: Congressman Stephen Lynch beat back a progressive challenger in the 8th District, Congressman Richard Neal cruised to a 19th nomination in the 1st, and Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden turned back both a police-union-backed opponent and his old boss-turned-rival, former DA Rachael Rollins.

Why does this matter beyond bragging rights? Because it tells you something real about the Massachusetts electorate: an aging, deeply loyal Democratic base still rewards incumbency and progressive branding over youth and "fresh start" messaging — at least when the alternative doesn't offer a sharply different governing vision. Moulton ran as the pragmatic moderate insisting Markey was too old to fight Trump; voters said, essentially, we'll take the guy who's been fighting since before you had a driver's license. That's a signal to every Beacon Hill veteran nervously eyeing a primary in two years, and it's a gut check for the national "boot the boomers" theory, which just hit a wall in deep-blue New England.

Not every incumbent had it so easy — South Boston's Nick Collins survived a Mayor Michelle Wu-backed challenge from Latoya Gayle, but Senator Will Brownsberger's race against 35-year-old Daniel Lander remained a nail-biter, with Brownsberger clinging to roughly a 61-vote lead as of Wednesday morning. That's recount territory, and it's the one race from Tuesday that isn't over. Meanwhile, the general election field is now set: Markey faces Republican John Deaton and independent socialist Joe Tache in November, and Governor Maura Healey — unopposed in her own primary — will face self-funding Republican Mike Minogue, a former medical device CEO who's already dropped $15 million of his own money into the race.

Full story at Boston Globe →

What Else You Should Know

Wu's Beacon Hill gambit had mixed results. Mayor Michelle Wu took the unusual step of publicly backing primary challengers against two sitting state senators, Nick Collins and Will Brownsberger, arguing they'd voted against their constituents' interests. Collins held her off with 54 percent; Brownsberger's race is still too tight to call, meaning Wu's real influence on Beacon Hill remains an open — and now closely watched — question. CommonWealth Beacon →

Norfolk County gets a new top prosecutor — and it took all night to find out who. Djuna Perkins edged out former federal prosecutor Adam Deitch by about 3,000 votes to win the seven-way Democratic primary to replace retiring DA Michael Morrissey, whose handling of the Karen Read and Sandra Birchmore cases loomed over the entire race. Perkins had trailed at midnight before the count flipped in her favor overnight. Boston Globe →

Dan Koh finally gets his congressional seat. After losing a close 2018 recount in a different district, the former Marty Walsh chief of staff won the crowded five-way primary to succeed Moulton in the 6th District, topping state Rep. Tram Nguyen by 12 points. If he wins in November, as expected, Koh would become Massachusetts' first Asian American member of Congress. CommonWealth Beacon →

The GOP ticket for governor is set, awkwardly. Minogue trounced Brian Shortsleeve in the Republican primary, but his preferred running mates were both knocked off the ballot over signature issues — so he's now paired with Shawn Oliver, a New Bedford city councilor who spent the whole campaign on Shortsleeve's team. They're calling it unity. WBUR →

A Brockton addiction treatment nonprofit got hit with $1.15 million in fines after Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office found Adult & Teen Challenge Northeast used program participants as unpaid labor for outside for-profit companies — cleaning offices, shoveling snow, prepping food — work Campbell says had nothing to do with recovery. Hundreds of participants are owed back wages topping $850,000. WBUR →

Rhode Island's political establishment may be next on the chopping block. One state over, Governor Dan McKee, Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos, and Providence Mayor Brett Smiley are all facing real odds of losing their September 9 primaries — a scenario that would be an unprecedented shakeup of Ocean State politics, driven partly by lingering anger over the Washington Bridge closure. Boston Globe →

Worth Your Attention

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Yesterday's Biggest Contributions

Big Spending This Week

Data from the MA Office of Campaign & Political Finance

Full hearing schedule →

Recent filings with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance:

Candidates

• Eliseu Desousa (Republican) — House, 13th Bristol — Filed: 8/31/2026
• Charles Bailey (Republican) — Senate, Norfolk, Worcester and Middlesex — Filed: 8/27/2026

Ballot Question Committees

• Committee for Keep Cannabis Legal, Vote No on 8 — N/A, N/A — Filed: 8/28/2026

OCPF →

One More Thing

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