Edward Markey

In response to Kelly Garrity’s article “Older voters not sure peers should run: Mass. Senate race highlights concerns on age” (Page A1, July 9), it’s too bad the Globe didn’t interview me. I’m a couple of months older than Senator Ed Markey, and I’m going to vote for him for sure. Representative Seth Moulton is using ageism to scare people away from voting for the better, more experienced person for the job. He used it eight years ago to challenge the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, then House speaker.

I had been a supporter of Moulton, both as a voter and financially, in his campaigns for the House. But his ageist attacks and his attacks against the trans community following the 2024 presidential election have turned me off from him. Democrats need the seniority in the Senate that Markey brings should the party take over the chamber after the midterms. From what I can see, he hasn’t lost a step, so there’s no reason to deny him another term.

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I’m old enough to remember the phrase from the 1960s: “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Of course that was a poor sentiment, as is: Don’t vote for Markey because he’s 80.

Herb Harris

Peabody

I am not sure that interviews with 15 voters who are 80 or close to it warrants the headline “Older voters not sure peers should run.” Consider me, at 88, the 16th interviewee, and I am voting to reelect Senator Ed Markey because I trust that he will pursue his progressive agenda. I am not so convinced about his opponent.

Lynn Gaulin

North Attleborough

As a man nearing 80, I am well aware of how quickly health can fail, as discussed in Anjali Huynh’s article “Senate race has liberals lamenting: Young candidates generate energy in other regions while Mass. lags, they say” (Page A1, July 20).

Many people refuse to face the realities of age and may fear letting go. Yet in politics, a feeling of being irreplaceable, that no one else could do the job as well, is damaging to our government and our democracy. President Biden is a noteworthy example, and his ill-fated reelection campaign is a major reason Donald Trump was elected again. Trump himself is 80 now and showing signs of decline.

I think of other examples, including Senators Dianne Feinstein and Mitch McConnell, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and many others past and present.

I agree with the 79-year-old voter from Hudson who said, “I would have preferred for Ed Markey to step down this year and become a mentor, an éminence grise to whoever was coming up.” I believe we in Massachusetts are fortunate to have a good younger candidate for Senate in Representative Seth Moulton. This is an important choice for us to make.

Markey, at 80, is running once again, after nearly 50 years in Congress. It’s likely he feels capable now, as he says, but much can change in three of four years. In a closely divided chamber, one senator’s seat could swing the balance of power across the aisle.

Randy Foote

Roxbury