Alex Rikleen already had his work cut out for him.
Earlier this year, the history teacher, fantasy sports writer and father of two from Acton launched a long-shot bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., as the Malden pol seeks a third term on Capitol Hill.
After all, trying to defeat an entrenched, deep-pocketed incumbent with decades of experience in Washington in a state famously averse to challengers is no small thing.
Then, this week, the Bay State’s political and chattering classes lit up at the news that U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-6th District, was seriously considering a 2026 primary bid, and that a campaign announcement could come any day now.
But for Rikleen, 38, who spent the spring and summer making the rounds of Democratic town committees statewide and the odd county fair, it’s the more the merrier.
Because if Moulton, of Salem, does get in, it’s an opportunity to underline what he believes is the contrast between what he describes as his “insurgent” candidacy and establishment Democrats who haven’t done enough to resist Trump 2.0.
With Moulton, “you’re gonna get a moderate. You risk getting a Manchin or a Sinema, or a Fetterman,” he said, referring to former U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, and sitting U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who are reviled by progressives for being too accommodating to Republicans.
And that’s absolutely not what the party — or the nation — needs right now, he argued
“Democrats are staying the course. They are sticking to their ― heavy quotation marks ― strategy of ‘hope and wait,’” Rikleen, a political newcomer, told MassLive in a wide-ranging interview. “The hope that they win more seats in 2026 or 2028. And [they] deliberately don’t use all of the power of their office and all of the tools available to them to push back.”
These are, admittedly, strange times for the Democratic Party. They’re out of power in Washington and fighting to hold their own in state capitols and governors’ offices across the land.
Then there’s the disastrous polling and the registration bleed that shows Democratic voters deserting for the GOP.
But all of this comes as the same polling shows President Donald Trump’s popularity taking a dive amid concerns about the economy, and as Democrats overperform in special elections.
Read More: Massachusetts Senate race 2026: With Auchincloss’ exit, what’s next for Ed Markey?
For Rikleen, who trained as a historian at Boston College, that’s evidence that the right kind of Democrat, with the right kind of message, can break through.
“I always say, and I mean it, it’s true, we all need health care and a fair economy and a safe climate,” he said. “But the solutions to those problems won’t last if the courts strike them down, if billionaires can buy the outcomes or if we can’t choose our leaders.”
” … And I think that insurgent campaigns, like mine, are the solution to that,” he continued. “People who were not part of the problem being created, people who weren’t in Washington for the last 10 years, as things were slowly deteriorating. People who didn’t vote for Chuck Schumer to be [Senate] majority leader.”
Rikleen isn’t the only congressional hopeful who feels that way. There are candidates in California, Illinois and Virginia who are running similar campaigns, mainly in reaction to the party’s aged leadership and the need for generational change in Washington, Politico reported earlier this year.
On his campaign’s website, Rikleen says he supports a shift to clean energy, universal health care, guaranteed access to abortion and paid family leave — all are issues that should resonate with the party’s progressive base.
While Markey, who began his career in Washington during the Carter era, remains broadly popular among Massachusetts residents, there are concerns about his age.
Markey would be 80 by Election Day next year, and 86 by the end of a third term. He has sought to downplay those worries, arguing that “it’s not your age, it’s the age of your ideas.”
“I’m still the youngest guy in the room. Like Paul McCartney, I keep on rocking,“ he told the Boston Globe earlier this year.
Rikleen didn’t mention Markey’s age during his conversation with MassLive. He kept the focus on the need for a rebrand and a more vigorous resistance toward what a growing number of experts believe is the nation’s slide into authoritarianism.
And that’s a fight worth fighting, he said.
“One of the greatest allies that Democrats have going in their favor is that we’re not up against [the] authoritarians’ best and brightest,” he said. “But that’s all the more reason we need to do everything we can to stop and slow things down now, right? Because we have a window, and I don’t know how long that window is going to last.”
Rikleen can point to a specific moment when his fears about that slide translated into action: the confirmation hearing earlier this year for current FBI Director Kash Patel.
“Yes, every Democrat voted against him, but they didn’t treat this like the crisis that it is,” he said. “We’re about to put an extremist in charge of a critical arm of the Department of Justice, and Democrats are treating this like it’s, you know, just another conservative who they kind of disagree with.”
That’s when he decided to run for Senate, he said.
“That was the moment, to me, when I realized Democrats aren’t shellshocked. They’re not waiting to pick their spot, to hold their ground,” he said. “This is the strategy, and the strategy is to wait and hope, and lay low, and let the Republicans be the story.”
“And that was the moment, for me, I realized that this was not going to change,” he continued. “This was the plan. And it was going to be the plan for a long time.”
That brought him to the Senate, where the array of parliamentary tools to frustrate the majority’s will is deeper and more varied than the more populist U.S. House.
“The Senate is where members of the minority party have a lot of things that they can do, right? Which is why I’m in this race and not a different race.”
And there are still laps to go before November 2026.