{"id":74,"date":"2026-05-27T16:06:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worcestermovingreport.com\/?p=74"},"modified":"2026-05-27T16:06:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:06:39","slug":"rikleen-ends-u-s-senate-bid-endorses-markey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worcestermovingreport.com\/?p=74","title":{"rendered":"Rikleen ends U.S. Senate bid, endorses Markey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

DEMOCRAT<\/mark><\/strong> ALEX<\/mark><\/strong> RIKLEEN<\/mark><\/strong> is ending his U.S. Senate campaign and endorsing Sen. Ed Markey, backing the incumbent over challenger U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton ahead of this weekend\u2019s Democratic convention in Worcester.<\/p>\n

Read more A cakewalk for Bill Galvin<\/a><\/p>\n

Rikleen, a former history teacher and fantasy sports writer making his first run for public office, launched his longshot Senate bid a year ago with calls for Democrats to more aggressively confront President Donald Trump and pursue sweeping reforms to the country\u2019s political institutions. <\/p>\n

He told the News Service in an exclusive interview that he plans to endorse Markey this weekend at the Massachusetts Democratic Party\u2019s nominating convention, where he will speak at the senator\u2019s breakfast before delegates gather at the DCU Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you decide that you don\u2019t see a path, that all of a sudden becomes really hard to keep it going,\u201d Rikleen said. \u201cThe assumptions that we had to how this might keep going stopped making sense, and we felt that this was an opportunity to use the voice, use the momentum that we had built to support Senator Markey.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest poll on the race by Emerson College showed Markey five points above Moulton, receiving 37 percent and 32 percent respectively, with 29 percent of respondents undecided. Rikleen received 1 percent, as did another progressive candidate William Gates.<\/p>\n

Rikleen has positioned himself to Markey\u2019s left and argued Democrats were failing to meet the urgency of Trump\u2019s return to power. His campaign centered less on ideological differences with Markey than on what he repeatedly called \u201cpriorities\u201d \u2014 particularly judicial reform, voting rights protections and campaign finance changes that he argued were necessary before broader Democratic policy goals could survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats have shown us that they\u2019re not going to change on their own,\u201d Rikleen said when he launched his campaign.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the campaign, he called for expanding the Supreme Court, imposing term limits on justices, strengthening voting rights laws and overhauling campaign finance rules in the wake of the Citizens United decision. On his campaign website, Rikleen argued that \u201ca Democratic party that is not serious about court reform is a party that is not serious about good governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also framed the race as part of a broader struggle over democratic institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump administration is trying to end American democracy,\u201d Rikleen wrote on his website, where he urged Democrats to \u201cuse every lever available\u201d to resist the administration and reject any \u201cstrategic retreat\u201d from defending marginalized groups.<\/p>\n

Asked this week why he decided to run, Rikleen returned to many of the same themes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got into this race because I felt that we needed a more assertive Democratic party to fight back against Trump, and to try to make sure that Democrats were paying attention to history,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a former history teacher. I thought that we need to use every lever available to us to be fighting back against this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race shifted last fall when Moulton entered, offering Democratic primary voters a more moderate alternative to Markey and drawing significant media attention.<\/p>\n

Though Moulton\u2019s candidacy altered the dynamic of the race, Rikleen said it didn\u2019t fundamentally change his campaign\u2019s mission to call on Democrats to stand up to Trump.<\/p>\n

Read more Health care coverage for immigrants remains in limbo<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe is also currently serving in Congress, and so it didn\u2019t change any of the core assumptions,\u201d Rikleen said. \u201cIn some ways he took up some attention, but in other ways he called more attention to the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Moulton\u2019s \u201centire campaign focuses on generational change, but he hasn\u2019t explained how swapping one sitting congressman for a younger one advances any of the issues people my age (or younger) care about,\u201d which he listed as the climate, LGBTQ+ and racial civil rights, \u201cfixing\u201d the Supreme Court and \u201cfighting corporate power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe senator\u2019s track record is just obviously better and more consistent than the representative\u2019s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rikleen said his differences with Markey were often more about emphasis than ideology.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn every meaningful issue we were, if not on the same page, we were close,\u201d he said. \u201cMy biggest issues were prioritization.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed specifically to court reform and called Markey \u201clegitimately the best senator in the United States Senate on that issue\u201d though he \u201cthought there was room for him to push a little farther.\u201d <\/p>\n

For Rikleen, his first run for office was \u201cdrinking out of a fire hose constantly, every day, for a year,\u201d he said, laughing. Still, he described the campaign as \u201cenergizing and exciting and fun, and rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you believe you\u2019re fighting for a good cause, waking up every day is very easy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rikleen said the experience also deepened his appreciation for voters\u2019 attachment to elected officials and the seriousness with which they approach politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were people who agreed with me on a lot of what I had to say, but they still wanted to continue supporting Senator Markey because of what he\u2019s done throughout his career,\u201d he said. \u201cExperiencing that every single day, dozens or hundreds of times, really drills that point home.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for whether he might seek office again, Rikleen said he is not ready to decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sincerely don\u2019t know. This is hard, and it\u2019s hard on my wife, and on my kids,\u201d he said. He noted that the convention in Worcester falls on his 10th wedding anniversary. \u201cI have the most incredible and patient wife of all time.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot I really enjoyed about it, but I can\u2019t make a decision without them,\u201d he said. \u201cSo let\u2019s do one thing at a time. Let\u2019s get Senator Markey reelected, and we\u2019ll see what the future brings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more How a shuttered hospital site in Lynn is being transformed into affordable housing for seniors<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rikleen, a former history teacher and fantasy sports writer making his first run for public office, launched his longshot Senate bid a year ago with calls for Democrats to more aggressively confront President Donald Trump and pursue sweeping reforms to the country’s political institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state-house-news-service"],"yoast_head":"\nRikleen ends U.S. Senate bid, endorses Markey - Worcester Moving Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worcestermovingreport.com\/?p=74\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rikleen ends U.S. Senate bid, endorses Markey - 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