- Authorities recovered the body from Worcester woods that was believed to be that of Karen Solomon, wife of a slain police officer.
- The US Supreme Court has allowed a Trump plan to restrict mail-in voting for Americans, for now. (New York Times)
- Here’s how the once-anemic Red Sox became, over the past two months, the second-most potent offense in Major League Baseball. Also, the Red Sox beat the Marlins, 4-2, last night, their fourth straight win.
Write to us at
TODAY’S STARTING POINT
There’s one week left before Massachusetts votes — and in doing so, will settle the current debate over whether the Commonwealth’s Democratic leaders need a generational refresh.
Connecticut voters signaled their preference for a fresh face earlier this month, and there are contests in the 1st and 8th congressional districts where this idea is being tested.
But none have been more closely watched than the increasingly bitter race between incumbent Senator Ed Markey, 80, and Representative Seth Moulton, 47. Moulton has made “passing the torch” central to his challenge to Markey, who has served in Washington for nearly 50 years.
It’s a familiar refrain from Moulton — but it’s not the first or second time he’s made it.
As my colleague, Sam Brodey, notes in his story about how Moulton’s brief run for president informs his current race, generational change was “the argument Moulton made in his 2014 victory over former representative John Tierney and in his push to oust Nancy Pelosi as Democratic leader. It was the reason he ran for president in 2020 and for the Senate now.”
Asked in a Sunday interview on Face the Nation whether his refrain meant he thought “the Democratic Party has been on the wrong path for a very long time,” Moulton agreed.
“Yes, that’s fair. I mean, this is very authentic to me,” he said. “From the very first time I ran for Congress against a nine-term incumbent in my own party and had many of those same establishment endorsers of Ed Markey campaigning against me, I’ve been willing to challenge the establishment when I don’t think it’s getting the job done. And I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not always popular, right? It doesn’t always resonate with people. But right now, it’s desperately needed.”
That was then; this is now
What a newer model of Democratic leader would bring, in Moulton’s telling, has changed as the political moment and Moulton’s ambitions have shifted.
The Moulton of seven years ago pitched himself as the moderate answer to progressives like Senators Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, and Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, Sam reports.
At that time, Moulton was worried that the party’s left turn could lead to a second term for President Trump.
This, of course, is a contrast to Moulton’s pitch to Massachusetts voters where, as Sam reports, Moulton “is embracing some ideas he rejected as a presidential candidate, like the Warren-style wealth tax, which he has held up as a way to pay for his sweeping, progressive-style ‘affordability’ agenda.” (Moulton argued he has always been in favor of taxing the wealthy and objected to how progressives talked about the proposal.)
Does it come down to your date of birth?
While the two argued just last week over whose progressive bona fides were the most authentic during the final debate, that matchup ended where the race began: age.
Asked by the Globe’s Adrian Walker about their use of artificial intelligence, Markey answered, “I use whatever is inside my iPhone or my iPad, whatever comes up.”
He later added, “It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s called Siri or it’s called Claude .... we need to build safeguards around it.”
Moulton later called the answer “potentially disqualifying.”
A recent Suffolk-Globe poll, which had Markey up over Moulton by 14 points, indicated that most voters were not concerned about Markey’s age. But we’ll know soon whether that holds when Massachusetts heads to the polls on Sept. 1.
---
Read: Moulton’s familiar refrain
里 9 Across: Beginning | ⛅ 81° Cloudier
POINTS OF INTEREST
Clancy trial: A prosecution expert testified that Lindsay Clancy likely killed her children because she was depressed and suicidal.
They knew their ancestor fought in the Revolution: No one told them he was enslaved by a Harvard overseer.
‘Who did I kill?’ Stopped after speeding at 100 miles per hour and crashing into a car in North Reading, records show an alleged drunk driver asked this of police. The driver was charged with killing a father and his 8-year-old daughter.
Canada and Trump: One man’s grudge could hurt Mass. and New England, the Globe’s Larry Edelman writes. Ontario’s premier says Canada should be ready to cut off its vital energy to the US.
MBTA shutdowns: How many can Boston take?
Downturn: Mass. lost biotech jobs for the first time in 2025, a new report shows.
NFL preseason: These games are a waste of time, so the NFL should make them a thing of the past, Christopher L. Gasper writes.
The past: A Western Massachusetts congressional candidate challenging 19-term US Representative Richard Neal acknowledged in a social media post that he had a past drunken driving arrest.
Cambridge police shooting: The man fatally shot by Cambridge police had earlier been arrested on a gun charge that was dropped.
BESIDE THE POINT
By David Beard
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beep beep! Finally coming out in theaters after a move to shelve it, “Coyote vs. Acme” is a fast and furry-ous delight, the Globe’s Odie Henderson writes.
Cottage of the Week: Cape cottage offers 294 square feet of living space, for $279,000, in Eastham.
✈️ Not another Hudson News: JetBlue’s new lounge at Logan has a Green Monster, craft cocktails, and a secret candy alcove. Take a peek inside.
She was supposed to retire: Instead, she opened a wallpaper store.
The blood moon: Here’s how to watch this week’s “blood moon” lunar eclipse.
A doorstop: In a world with a shrinking attention span, a novelist grappling with cancer has released a 3,000-page novel, which has been lauded by a BU lecturer. (The Conversation)
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by David Beard and produced by Ryan Orlecki.
❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at
✍ If someone sent you this newsletter, you can sign up for your own copy.
Delivered Monday through Friday.
Jackie Kucinich can be reached at