Ed Markey has been in Congress for 49 years. He began his first term the year Star Wars came out. He’s been in office with eight presidents and survived a Kennedy challenge, but now, at 79, he faces another young congressman who thinks it’s time for Markey to go. Markey disagrees. He says he has never been more energized—“a walking, talking antidepressant,” as he puts it—and he’d like six more years, please. We caught up with him just before the late-January government shutdown to talk Trump, term limits, bipartisanship, and one very nice presidential pen.
What’s the single accomplishment you’re most proud of?
Great question. Probably passing the law that ensures that working-class and poor kids in Massachusetts and across the country have access to the Internet, at their desks and in libraries. That’s called the “E-Rate” program. I’m proud of that law, because it’s the first time that an educational technology was deployed at the same rate for poor kids as it was for kids who come from wealthier communities.
Washington, DC, gets called a cesspool, a swamp, a shark tank. How would you describe it?
Right now, the White House and Donald Trump are wholly owned subsidiaries of the most powerful and corrupt industries in the United States. DC right now has just become Mar-a-Lago North. It’s also very bad at snow removal.
Biggest change that’s necessary in DC right now?
We need Republicans of courage to stand up for the Constitution, for the rule of law, and for those families most in need of help with healthcare, electricity, and food. Right now, people are struggling, trying to figure out how to pay their bills. And we need Donald Trump out of the White House, to take back the House and Senate from the Republicans.
Is bipartisan cooperation still possible?
It’s going to be necessary if we’re going to be able to break the vise-like grip that Donald Trump has exercised over Congress. We’re going to need Republicans to stand up and defy his threats. Progress will only be possible if Republicans emerge from their witness protection program, and so far, there’s not a lot of evidence they have that kind of courage, backbone, or independence.
What do you think is the most pressing thing that’s facing Massachusetts right now?
Donald Trump. He’s hurting our state profoundly every single day. There are two reasons why life is unaffordable today: Donald Trump and corporate greed, and we need to hold them both accountable. This administration is running rampant over our rights, murdering people in the streets, and making everything from groceries to electricity cost more. We have to get corporate greed out of our healthcare, housing, and education systems. And we have to get Donald Trump and his MAGA henchmen out of the White House and Congress.
What do you sense is your constituents’ biggest concern?
Accountability and affordability.
So you believe that billionaires should be paying a lot more in taxes?
Absolutely. The rich are getting richer, and the rest of the country are paying taxes as they see a reduction in their healthcare, education, and environmental protections. That’s just plain wrong, and that’s what I fight against every single day I’m given the privilege of representing Massachusetts in the Senate.
In terms of a foreign power, who do you view as the United States’ biggest enemy right now?
Donald Trump is our biggest enemy from a foreign policy perspective that the United States has right now. He is mimicking the authoritarianism of China and Russia, of President Xi and President Putin, on a daily basis. And it’s all coming from inside the White House.
Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
When you have had personal interactions with Donald Trump, what have they been like?
They are limited, but he is an odious political aberration that I am working hard to make just a footnote in history. He actually signed my bill to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States, and he gave me the pen he signed it with. I really like the pen he gave me, but that’s an exception to what Trump does and how he operates.
The Green New Deal—can it ever actually pass?
The Green New Deal was in the DNA of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). There were tax breaks for wind, for solar, for all-electric vehicles, for battery storage technologies, for transitioning our country to a clean-energy future, while simultaneously focusing on environmental justice. That was the IRA, but we have much more work to do in transitioning us away from the fossil-fuel past to the clean-energy future, which young people desperately want for our nation and our planet.
Scientists say we’ve hit the point of no return on climate. Are you still hopeful?
In 2009, there were only 2,000 total megawatts of solar deployed in the United States. Last year, there were 50,000 new megawatts of solar deployed. 5,000 new megawatts of wind. 10,000 new megawatts of battery storage technology. None of that was really on the map just 15 years ago. Donald Trump is trying to kill that innovation. The planet is running a fever. There are no emergency rooms for planets, and we have to deploy solutions. I’m always hopeful. Hope is a discipline.
Thoughts on our infrastructure?
Well, I worked very hard on the infrastructure bill of 2022, with Elizabeth Warren, for the funding needed so the Sagamore Bridge would sag no more. I worked hard to build in the funding for the West-East Rail so that we could expand economic opportunities for everyone in our state. It’s critical that we continue to fight for infrastructure funding. And I fought hard for the funding for offshore wind, which is the source of electricity for the future in our country. You know, a vision without funding is a hallucination.
What role do you see the government having with respect to AI? Should it act as a control?
Well, there’s a Dickensian quality to AI. It’s the best of technologies. It’s the worst of technologies. It can enable and ennoble, or it can degrade and debase. So we want the good parts of AI, but we need to minimize the harm that AI can do. With children and teenagers, we need to make sure that we have a privacy bill of rights, because AI on steroids is going to further exacerbate the mental health crisis that we’re seeing in young people in this country.
In 2023, one in four teenage girls contemplated suicide. More than one in eight teenage girls actually attempted suicide. One in five LGBTQ+ youths attempted suicide, and the surgeon general points the accusing finger at social media. And finally, from my perspective, we need to animate this technology with the human values that we hold to be fundamental. I want AI to be used to find a cure for cancer, or to help improve the way we educate children in our country, and many other uses.
Biggest lesson you’ve learned in all of your years in Congress?
I would say that it’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. And you can never stop fighting. You have to fight for what you believe in, no matter who tells you no. You have to fight for the future.
What’s the biggest crisis you’ve faced in your career?
It’s right now. It’s what Donald Trump is trying to do to our democracy. He’s a walking, talking constitutional crisis every day that he roams around the Oval Office, and his attempt to eviscerate the rights of Americans, his authoritarian attacks, his ICE agents murdering Americans. They’re all part of that crisis.
Have you ever done anything politically expedient that you now regret?
I try my best in every situation to make the best decision at that time with the information I have. And that’s all I can bring to any issue.
Anything you would do differently?
I actually keep looking ahead. I try to do my best to make the right decisions right now, to protect the American people from the most harmful aspects of the current administration’s policies. But I guess one regret that I do have is that at the celebration of the Celtics’ victory in 2024, at the White House, Joe Biden threw the basketball to me on the White House lawn, and I have some misgivings about giving that basketball back. But I did.
Is there anyone in Congress you simply cannot work with?
Even with Marjorie Taylor Greene, I was in agreement that there should not be a ban on states being able to legislate controls on AI technologies. If I can get something done for Massachusetts, I tell Republicans to give me a call. I want to work with you.
Who would you say is your closest ally in Congress?
I have many, depending upon the issue.
What do you miss most about Boston when you’re in DC?
Having people around who know how to speak the English language correctly, and with the proper accent. People who know that it’s a bubblah, a clickah, a frappe and not a shake.
Do you have a personal motto?
Yeah. The past is just a memory, and the future is our hard reality. My recommendation to everyone is: Don’t agonize, organize.
Where do you stand on term limits?
My feeling is that they’re built into the Constitution. It’s called elections, and we have them every two, four, or six years.
What’s the difference between serving in the House and the Senate?
Each has a coequal responsibility to represent the people, so it’s like trying to differentiate between the National League and the American League. They’re both part of the majors, and the job in each body is to produce legislation to be put on the president’s desk.
You’re the second-longest-serving member of Congress. Is that an asset or liability?
This is the most energized that I have ever been. And each one of the energy, environmental, healthcare, or educational programs that Trump is seeking to dismantle, I had the privilege of helping to create, so I’m taking what Trump is doing very personally. Because I know what’s at stake. I know what the world was like before those programs. So I bring energy plus experience, and that’s what I’m delivering every day.
You’ll be 80 before your current term ends. How do you think about that?
Well, as I said, this is the most energized I have ever been. My job is to be a walking, talking antidepressant every day, especially right now. That means fighting for the democracy we created here in Massachusetts. I look at the horrors in our country right now, and I know I have to fight, and I look forward to it. My father drove a truck for the Hood milk company. I grew up in Malden. And the kids who go to school in Malden right now deserve to have the same opportunities that I had growing up. So, I wake up and I fight for those kids every day.
Any message to fellow Democrat Seth Moulton, who’s trying to unseat you?
My message is “I’ll see you on the campaign trail.”
By the Numbers
The Markey Math
A career in Congress, by the numbers.
2
Number of degrees Markey holds from Boston College: a BA and a JD.
22
Number of elections Markey has won during his Congressional career—19 to the House and three to the Senate.
1,618+
Number of bills and resolutions he has sponsored throughout his career in Congress. Not all of them passed.
7
Number of sitting senators older than Markey. He’s 79.
45
Number of years Markey has owned his signature Nike Air Revolutions.
1
Number of movie cameos to date (Markey made an appearance in the 2003 film Gods and Generals).
