When Alex Rikleen was a Wayland High School student in 2005, the MetroWest Daily News recognized him as a “future leader” for spearheading a campaign for later school start times. Two decades later (and with those later start times since adopted), the 38-year-old father of two is testing that title on a statewide stage, mounting an insurgent challenge to U.S. Sen. Edward Markey in the 2026 Democratic primary.
“The reason I’m running is because Democrats in Washington are playing it safe,” Rikleen told the Daily News in a recent interview. “We are in the midst of a crisis and the United States Senate is where individuals have the most ability to push back and fight back and defend against this crisis, and Sen. Markey is not doing all of the things that he can be doing.”
Massachusetts hasn’t unseated a sitting Democratic senator in decades, and Markey — seeking a third term after serving nearly 40 years in the House of Representatives — comes armed with experience, money and plenty of progressive goodwill earned through his promotion of the 2019 Green New Deal climate proposal with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York.
But Rikleen insists the moment demands more.
“People are really fed up with the Democratic establishment, and Sen. Markey is a core part of that,” Rikleen said. “He is the longest-serving Democrat in Congress and he continues to stand by (Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer’s — what I would argue is — disastrous leadership.”
Lessons from the government shutdown
Rikleen says the recent government shutdown only underscores his critique, arguing that while Democrats finally showed a willingness to resist, he wonders whether it was for the right cause.
“I am glad they picked something to hold the line on,” he says. “Tactically, I don’t think they picked wisely. Trump’s a dictator. Now let’s debate health care nuance? A much cleaner argument would have been to pick a line related to Trump’s overreach.”
As a former history teacher, Rikleen looks to the textbooks. Authoritarian takeovers, he says, can be overcome when opposition parties use every tool available to delay: unanimous consent, committee holds, filibusters — procedural tactics he believes Democrats have been too timid to deploy.
“Senator Markey, ask yourself: Is the Democratic Party in America today acting as strongly as opposition parties in Norway or in Portugal, where their authoritarian past is now so far behind them that we almost forget they happened?” Rikleen saids. “I think that you will come away profoundly disappointed.”
He uses Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s confirmation as an example of a missed opportunity. Confirmed six weeks after Inauguration Day, she immediately began pushing major cuts.
“If Democrats had delayed her appointment even a month, that’s money in towns across the state, helping families with disabled students get services for another couple weeks,” Rikleen said.
Rikleen stresses priorities, not a platform
On his website, Rikleen describes his agenda not as a “platform” but as “priorities” — policies he says will be dead on arrival unless structural reforms come first. He points to likely Supreme Court roadblocks on Medicare for All, AI regulation or climate action. His strategy, he says, divides into two phases: obstruct and delay during Trump’s presidency to minimize harm, then rebuild democratic guardrails afterward.
“When you combine the power of the office with the power of your platform, they amplify each other,” he said. “At the moment, Democrats are not using their power in the Senate and not using their voices to amplify a narrative. That cedes the ground to Trump and the Republicans.”
Establishment vs. insurgent
Rikleen is framing the race as establishment vs. outsider. With U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., also weighing a Senate bid, some see the anti-Markey vote splintering.
Rikleen disagrees.
“People are mad at D.C. Democrats, and where has Seth Moulton been for the last 10 years? In Washington,” Rikleen said. “He’s part of the establishment that’s not doing enough.”
He also said signals from Moulton’s centrist leanings misread the current mood.
“We are in a moment where the difference between the center and the left politically doesn’t even matter, because the government is so broken that neither of our policies can get passed,” Rikleen said.
Markey knows something about insurgent challenges. In 2020, he fended off then-U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III in a nationally watched Senate primary, winning 55.4% of the vote and carrying Boston, the suburbs and college towns with the backing of the Sunrise Movement, an organization that advocates for action on climate change.
That race was widely seen as establishment vs. progressive energy — a dynamic Rikleen now hopes to flip. He cites Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, where turnout among voters aged 25-35 exceeded that of those aged 55-65.
“People are upset and showing it and they want change,” Rikleen said. “I think there is a large appetite for a challenge like mine.”
A race about urgency and accountability
For Rikleen, the race is less about policy differences than urgency.
“I think Sen. Markey and I are aligned on a lot of issues. I’m not running because of his age,” Rikleen said. “I’m running because there are things he can and should be doing that he’s not.”
Markey, first elected to Congress in 1976, will be 80 by Election Day and 86 at the end of another Senate term. It’s a reality, Rikleen says, that carries its own risks.
“Any serious telling of the last 20 years of American political history has to reckon with the fact that an important factor is particularly people on the left damaging their own legacy by staying on too long,” he said.
Deploying a grassroots strategy
Rikleen, who lives in Acton and manages the PTO at his children’s preschool, leans heavily on community-level organizing. He has served as a delegate to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention and worked on campaigns before, experience he says shapes his grassroots approach — from town committee appearances and protests to community service events.
He has stops scheduled in Holliston, Wayland, Westborough and Northborough.
“Of course, the primary goal is to win,” Rikleen said. “But … getting Sen. Markey to start using these tactics is (also) a win. If my campaign can make our senator be a better senator, then that’s worth it.”
That message is embodied in the campaign’s bright pink branding — chosen for Rikleen’s son, who was bullied for liking the color.
“This campaign is, in a lot of ways, about standing up to bullies,” Rikleen said. “Having pink was a nice way to show support for my son and keep both of my children with me while I’m out and about.”