Edward Markey

ICE? Bad. President Trump? Also bad. The Jaylen Brown trade? Really bad.

And, broadly, they’re in alignment on some of the most pressing policy areas, such as immigration. Both slammed a recent Supreme Court decision ending temporary protected status for Haitians and Syrians.

But in their first Senate primary debate Wednesday, they diverged plenty, too.

MAJORITY RULES: They view the path ahead for a Democratic party still in post-2024 self-rediscovery mode very differently.

Markey wants a progressive Congress — a Democratic majority that would “stand up to tax billionaires,” and embrace policies like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, the ambitious climate package he championed in 2020.

“We have to just have a higher vision for what the Democratic Party stands for,” Markey told reporters after the hour-long scrap with Moulton in Chicopee. “That’s not self-enrichment, but the enrichment of every family in our country. And if we run on that platform, we are going to have a blue landslide at the end of this year.”

That vision, Markey said, is what’s driving his bid for another — and what he told the Globe’s Editorial Board would be his last — six-year term. “I need one more term to finish the agenda, this progressive agenda, and then I will step down,” he said.

At the other podium, Moulton argued he just wants a Democratic majority. The Salem Democrat agreed with Markey’s calls to reverse cuts to Medicaid and federal research funding. But Democrats won’t have the power to make any of it happen “if we don’t win the majority,” Moulton said.

If elected, he said he’d be “be traveling all over this country to help flip seats,” pointing to the work he’s done helping candidates with military service backgrounds in congressional races through his Serve America PAC.

RESPECTFULLY: The candidates’ first face-off featured some pettier disagreements, too. Markey and Moulton traded jabs about each other’s finances and support (or lack thereof) from fellow elected officials.

Moulton repeated the phrase “with all due respect” enough times to make one question how much respect he actually felt was due. And he ribbed Markey, the state’s “junior senator,” over his decades-long tenure in Congress by pointing out that one of Markey’s key legislative accomplishments was a bill passed in 1996.

Markey, for his part, reiterated his criticism of Moulton for “throwing trans kids under the bus” in the aftermath of the 2024 election, when the congressman questioned the Democratic party’s messaging around trans rights and identity politics in an interview with the New York Times.

They also fielded some fun questions: Moulton’s favorite spot to vacation in Massachusetts is … Salem?

“To be honest, I like to stay at home,” said Moulton, who also recently purchased a home in Marblehead.

Markey’s most-used app? The MLB app to get updated Red Sox scores “all summer long” and “late into the night.” (Maybe just put the phone down, man).

ANOTHER ROUND: The candidates will face off in two more debates next month: One on Aug. 3 in Dedham hosted Boston 25 and GBH News, and another the Globe is co-hosting with WCVB and WBUR on Aug. 20.

In the meantime, read more debate coverage from the Globe’s Anjali Huynh and Samantha J. Gross. And h/t to Anjali, who caught the candidates post-debate.

PLATNER CALLS IT QUITS: After his support collapses, Graham Platner ends scandal-plagued Senate campaign by Sam Brodey and James Pindell, The Boston Globe: Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, ended his candidacy on Wednesday — throwing a contest with national implications into chaos and punctuating one of the most meteoric rises and dramatic falls of any candidate in recent memory.

The seismic announcement came in the wake of a report from Politico on Monday, in which Jenny Racicot, a woman from Maine who used to date Platner, alleged he raped her in 2021 — the latest in a parade of damaging allegations that defined Platner’s campaign from the beginning. In a 11-minute video posted online on Wednesday night, Platner said he was “suspending campaign operations” and defiantly cast actors in the political “establishment” as antagonists seeking to destroy his insurgent movement. He insisted the sexual assault allegations against him are false.

“We’re not doing it because of the allegations,” Platner said. “We’re doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.”

WHAT’S NEXT: Before Platner dropped out Wednesday evening, the Maine Democratic State Committee had already approved a plan for a 600-person nominating convention to determine who might replace Platner, per the Bangor Daily News.

Candidates vying to replace Platner will have to take part in a public campaign in order to qualify for the convention, Devon Murphy-Anderson, the state party’s executive director, said during an interview on MS Now Wednesday.

Two candidates have already thrown their hats into the ring: Dan Kleban, a brewery owner who briefly ran for Senate before dropping out last year, and Troy Jackson, the former Maine Senate president who lost the Democratic primary for governor.

Maine Democrats face a tight timeline for any kind of campaign or convention. They have to name a replacement by July 27.

POLL POSITION: With less than eight weeks until primary day, the Democratic contest for Moulton’s open Sixth District seat seems to still be a toss-up, according to a new internal poll one of the candidates commissioned.

The survey of 300 likely Democratic primary voters found 47 percent still haven’t decided which of the six candidates they might back in the Sept. 1 election.

But three candidates are leading over the rest of the field: John Beccia, the Lynnfield financial technology executive whose campaign commissioned the poll, got 15 percent, followed by former White House aide Dan Koh (13 percent) and state Representative Tram Nguyen (11 percent).

Statistically speaking, it’s a dead heat: The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 5.6 percentage points. The three other candidates running — software engineer Bethany Andres-Beck; Mariah Lancaster, a former federal worker from Salem; and Topsfield town moderator Jamie Belsito — all sat at 5 percent or less in the poll, which was conducted last week.

It’s the latest internal survey to show the race is anyone’s game, despite money starting to flow. Beccia dropped at least $1 million to launch the first TV ad campaign of the race late last month.

A late-May poll her campaign commissioned showed Nguyen, of Andover, leading the field, followed by Koh. And another internal survey Beccia’s campaign released from March showed Nguyen at 13 percent, with Beccia and Koh each at 10 percent, again within the survey’s margin of error.

DOTTING I’s, CROSSING T’s: Judge weighs putting GOP candidates back on primary ballot amid signature fraud allegations by Chris Van Buskirk, The Boston Globe: A state judge is considering whether to reinstate two Republican candidates to their primary ballot this September on technical grounds, despite the State Ballot Law Commission’s finding that hundreds of voter signatures the pair submitted were likely fraudulent. The case in Essex Superior Court hinges on signatures collected for Anne Manning Martin, a lieutenant governor candidate, and Michael Walsh, the party’s endorsed pick for attorney general, that one lawyer representing state officials said were produced through “systematic fraud.”

Attorneys for Walsh and Manning Martin argued in court Wednesday that the commission, which tossed them from the ballot last month, shouldn’t have been allowed to consider challenges to their signatures because those challenging them did not properly notify them about the objections. Judge Jeffrey T. Karp said there’s “some merit” to the candidates’ argument because of the strict legal guidelines for how a signature challenge should be handled.

Listen! US Representative Ayanna Pressley says she is in a ‘situationship’ with America. Hear from her on the Globe’s Say More podcast.

STRIKE ZONE: Mass General Brigham, nurses called to talk at State House amid biggest nursing strike in Mass. by Marin Wolf and Jonathan Saltzman, The Boston Globe: Governor Maura Healey summoned the state’s largest health system and its striking nurses to the State House on Wednesday in an attempt to broker a new contract, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

The late-afternoon meeting was called hours after a boisterous start to Massachusetts’ biggest-ever nurses strike, and the first at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Mayor Michelle Wu also helped arrange the meeting, the union said. But those talks ended without an agreement.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS: House passes $561M catch-all bill, from AI to horse race bets by Sam Drysdale and Katie Castellani, State House News Service: The House passed a $561 million, policy-heavy catch-all economic development bill Wednesday night, adding a suite of new policies and about $136 million to the bottom line. Among the additions was a pilot program to allow some uses of psychedelic substances, and a $500,000 line item for a grant program for employers to help current or former workers who were authorized under the federal Temporary Protected Status program.

SCARY STUFF: Boston City Councilor Julia Mejia treated by EMS after appearing to experience a medical emergency during council meeting by Niki Griswold, The Boston Globe: The Boston City Council’s regular meeting abruptly recessed Wednesday after Councilor Julia Mejia appeared to experience a medical emergency during the proceedings. Emergency medical personnel were called to the council chamber in City Hall just before 1:30 p.m. to provide treatment to Mejia. After roughly 10 minutes, several emergency medical technicians took Mejia, who appeared conscious, out of the room on a stretcher. Wu spoke with Mejia on Wednesday afternoon, and is “relieved to hear she is doing well,” according to Marcela Dwork, the mayor’s press secretary.

STOP THE SCROLL: Mayor Wu joins nationwide lawsuit against Meta, other social media giants by Mariana Simões and Marcela Rodrigues, The Boston Globe: Boston had joined a lawsuit against Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and other social media platforms alleging that addictive design features deliberately target minors and harm children’s mental health. The city added its name to the nearly 1,500 other school districts that have joined a lawsuit first filed in October 2022 alleging that social media exploits children “to drive corporate profit,” according to court records.

With one match remaining, how close has the MBTA come to selling out World Cup trains? by Will Katcher, MassLive.

Mass. health care faces ‘crisis’ after Supreme Court ruling ends TPS for Haitians by Liz Neisloss, GBH News.

Only 24% of New Bedford ShotSpotter alerts confirmed as gunshots by Anastasia E. Lennon, The New Bedford Light.

Complaint against Quincy City Council won’t be reviewed by state by Peter Blandino, The Patriot Ledger.

Fall River Fire urges sprinkler safety a year after Gabriel House by Emily Scherny and Dan Medeiros, The Herald News.

Thanks for reading The Scrum.

This newsletter was edited and produced by Matt Stout.

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