Moulton Talks About Age. Gen Z Candidates Talk About Everything Else.
Even if Senator Markey wins reelection this November, Massachusetts politics is on the verge of generational turnover.
The Senate race has dominated the headlines, but farther down the ballot, a youth surge is already all but settled, with several Gen Z newcomers poised to win. Yet while major media publications keep reaching for the “generational politics” angle, the likely future Beacon Hill lawmakers are avoiding the topic.
Absent political calamity, Connor Murray (age 23), Ravi Simon (age 29), and Gardner Mayor Michael J. Nicholson (age 31) are on track to be sworn in on Beacon Hill come January 1.
All three Democrats have clear paths to office: no primary opponents, and no current Republican opposition.
Their websites do not mention their ages. Nor do their stump speeches. In most cases, even finding a publicly listed age takes work.
Their youth is visually obvious. Murray looks young enough to get carded on his way into an R-rated movie – but for that to happen, he’d have to stop campaigning long enough to see a movie first. Which is kind of the point: even without opponents, these three are still running full-speed campaigns and focused on making life better for their constituents. These candidates know that lowering the age of an elected representative will not lower the cost of groceries.
That is the lesson getting lost at the top of the ticket. Seth Moulton’s campaign, and the coverage eager to frame the Senate race as an age-based showdown, have made generational politics the central question. But our problems are not caused by having older elected officials.
The appeal of generational change is rarely about birth years. It is about frustration with institutions that feel slow, insulated, and unresponsive. “Generational change” can become shorthand for a bundle of related demands: new ideas, different approaches, and more urgency. But naming the desire for change is not the same as explaining what needs to change, or why.
As Massachusetts polling has repeatedly shown, voters do consider candidate age, but generational change alone is rarely a major factor in their choices.
As Simon says, “[my youth] is implicitly obvious anytime someone looks at me.” Murray adds, “at the doors, people often tell me they're pleased to see a young person running.” Both say the responses validate their campaigns' approach of avoiding age-based messaging.
“I’m shocked at how much of a positive my age has been,” says Jack Richardson, another Gen Z candidate who avoids including youth in his pitch. The 24-year-old Select Board member is challenging a GOP incumbent more than twice his age. Yet Richardson’s website makes only one oblique reference to his youth, noting that he was the youngest elected Select Board member in town history.
Well, that, and the pictures.
His appearance may inspire age-based reactions when he’s door-knocking, but his message focuses entirely on affordability, climate change, and civil rights.
Running against an incumbent, Richardson may not make it to Beacon Hill. But the race is competitive: Kamala Harris carried the upper Cape district comfortably, Richardson has overwhelmingly outraised his opponent, and the district includes a notably robust Democratic Town Committee in Falmouth. In a national environment expected to favor Democrats, this is one of the state party’s better pickup opportunities.
Richardson is a clear test case because his race is both contested and competitive. But the same dynamic is visible elsewhere.
The most dramatic example is Daniel Darris-O’Connor, who was elected to the Billerica Select Board while still in high school and is now, at 19, trying to flip one of the swingiest House seats in the state. In Worcester, 25-year-old Nick Lazzaro is targeting a purple Republican-held seat. Near Springfield, 26-year-old Michael Lachenmeyer is challenging a longtime moderate incumbent in a primary whose winner will be unopposed in November. All are underdogs to varying degrees. Together, they reinforce the pattern: youth may help these candidates get noticed, but it is not why they are asking voters for support.
Alex Rikleen
It is unusual to have so many candidates this young with clear or plausible paths to Beacon Hill in the same cycle.
That is what makes the contrast with the U.S. Senate race so noteworthy. At the legislative level, a striking number of younger candidates are letting voters notice their age while focusing on topics like affordability, infrastructure, climate, and representation. At the top of the ticket, the conversation has been far more consumed by age itself. The State House candidates are offering a more substantive version of generational change, one that treats younger leadership not as the goal itself, but as a stand-in for a set of deeper demands.
Age should be a signal. It should not be the argument.
No matter what, Massachusetts politics is getting younger. The people making that change are focused on more important things.
Follow Alex Rikleen on Bluesky at @rikleen.bsky.social.
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Alex Rikleen is a former U.S. Senate candidate who has endorsed Senator Markey for reelection.
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