Thinking through The Boston Globe’s (somewhat) surprising endorsement of Moulton over Markey

Endorsements matter in lower-profile races because voters might genuinely be looking for guidance.

For instance, The Boston Globe’s endorsement of Lori Trahan and Jake Auchincloss might have been key factors in their first congressional victories, given that there was no incumbent and there were multiple candidates running. On the other hand, The New York Times’ double endorsement of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries stands out as an exercise in futility.

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In two weeks we’ll know which category the Globe’s endorsement of U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (sub. req., but this is free) in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate fits into. The incumbent, Ed Markey, remains popular despite his advanced age: he leads Moulton by a 28-point margin, according to the latest WCVB-TV/UMass Amherst poll, and the Globe/Suffolk University poll (sub. req.) has Markey up by 14. Moreover, endorsements matter less in high-profile contests — president, governor, senator — than they do when voters are less familiar with the candidates.

(Note: I wrote a more detailed commentary about how newspaper endorsements work for CommonWealth Beacon in 2024.)

Why would the Globe choose Moulton, a congressman of more moderate views than Markey with a penchant for shooting from the lip? (The Globe’s news reporters found no substance, sub. req., to Moulton’s reckless charge that Markey has some sort of tie to Jeffrey Epstein.) My answer is that it fits into a pattern of endorsements by the Globe not just during John and Linda Henry’s ownership but, before that, the New York Times Co. era and the Taylor family’s long reign. That is, the editorial pages have long had a penchant for occasionally deviating from their liberal orientation.

Not only were the aforementioned Trahan and Auchincloss more centrist than some of their opponents, but the Globe also endorsed Republican Charlie Baker over Democrat Martha Coakley in the 2014 governor’s race, and, going way back to 1974, the Republican incumbent governor, Frank Sargent, over Democratic challenger Michael Dukakis. That latter example comes with an asterisk: despite being a Republican, Sargent was perhaps the state’s most liberal governor before Deval Patrick was elected in 2006. Today’s Republican Party is not your grandfather’s, needless to say.

A couple of other points: news reporters hate endorsements because their job of providing fair coverage becomes more difficult if their news organization has taken sides. Yes, a quality news outlet maintains a strict wall of separation between the editorial pages and the newsroom. But candidates who are on the losing end of an endorsement often find that hard to believe.

The other point is that owners are perfectly free to involve themselves in the editorial pages, including having a say in — or even dictating — an endorsement. Though the Henrys enjoy a good reputation for non-involvement in news coverage, they can and do participate in decision-making by the editorial pages. Ideally, the owners should be part of a process, not issuing presumptive rulings from on high. The most notorious recent examples of the latter are Jeff Bezos’ and Patrick Soon-Shiong’s last-minute decisions to kill endorsements of Kamala Harris in The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, respectively. That said, we don’t know what precise role the Henrys might have played in the Moulton endorsement.

I’m a little surprised by the Moulton endorsement not just because of Markey’s huge lead and because of Moulton’s disparaging remarks in 2024 about trans athletes — remarks for which Moulton expressed no regret until he found himself in the heat of the Senate race. I was also surprised that the endorsement did not even mention Moulton’s ridiculous Epstein outburst.

That being said, Moulton’s voting record is reliably liberal despite his moderate reputation; a ProPublica database that has since been shut down showed that Moulton voted with the Democratic majority in the House more than 94% of the time. Given the hapless state of the Massachusetts Republican Party, whichever Democrat prevails on Sept. 1 is virtually guaranteed to win in November.