What to watch in Massachusetts: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to From the Politics Desk , a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

Welcome to September! We may be nine weeks away from the general election, but we’re still not done with primary season. In today’s edition, Bridget Bowman and Ben Kamisar break down the key races to watch in Massachusetts. Plus, Natasha Korecki gives us a Chicago history lesson.

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Massachusetts primary puts Democrats’ generational divides on display

By Bridget Bowman and Ben Kamisar

Today’s primaries in Massachusetts have turned into the latest battlefield in the Democratic Party’s generational divide, with several longtime legislators facing off against younger challengers.

Here are the races to watch. Massachusetts Senate: 80-year-old Democratic Sen. Ed Markey is trying to fend off a primary challenge from 47-year-old Rep. Seth Moulton .

The matchup comes six years after Markey defeated another Democrat more than 30 years his junior, then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III by 11 points. As Steve Kornacki noted in his “Data Dive” newsletter, an electorate that was heavy on college graduates provided Markey with a critical boost in that primary.

Moulton is betting that a lot has changed since 2020, particularly with President Donald Trump ’s 2024 victory fueling new levels of angst and thirst for change within the Democratic Party. But Markey is looking to tap into the energy on the left that has buoyed progressives in primaries across the country this year.

Massachusetts’ 8th District: Rep. Stephen Lynch , 71, is seeking his 14th term in Congress. But Patrick Roath , a 39-year-old former aide to former Gov. Deval Patrick , is pushing Lynch from the left, outraising the incumbent and outspending him significantly on the airwaves.

Lynch has rankled progressives over the years, breaking with the majority of his party on votes including the passage of the Affordable Care Act and, more recently, the Laken Riley Act, an immigration detention measure.

Massachusetts’ 1st District: Rep. Richard Neal , 77, is also facing a progressive challenge from 39-year-old high school teacher Jeromie Whalen . Neal is the top Democrat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and was first elected to Congress in 1988.

🎥 Tune in to the Kornacki Cam at 7:45 p.m. ET to watch Steve break down tonight’s results.

JB Pritzker, Chicago violence and the myth of Malört

Analysis by Natasha Korecki

CHICAGO — In old-school Chicago, the pattern went something like this: legendary newspaper columnist Mike Royko walked into the Billy Goat Tavern, called out, “Hey, kid,” and bartender Bouchaib Khribech headed over.

Khribech poured Royko’s drink of choice: vodka on the rocks.

“Sometimes he [would] do a scotch. He was a vodka guy. Malört never existed back then,” Khribech said of the beloved, late Pulitzer Prize winner.

One wouldn’t know it from national coverage, the late-night TV show riffs and, most recently, an event featuring Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker that the bitter drink that’s been likened to turpentine, vomit and pencil shavings (I’d go with gasoline) wasn’t always some iconic staple being tossed back in secret rooms. It has been around, yes, but it was obscure . Some grizzled Chicagoans write off the Malört phenomenon as a meme that only recently exploded in popularity .

“ Richard M. or Richard J. [Daley] — I doubt either one of them ever had Malört. They were Old Style kind of guys,” said Abdon Pallasch , a former longtime political reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, who went on to work for the state and is now a courts spokesman. (He’s also a former colleague of mine). “In the smoke-filled back rooms of Chicago, people are drinking bourbon or Irish whiskey. Malört wasn’t a thing.”

Malört is in the political spotlight after on Sunday Pritzker poured shots at the Recess Bar in the city’s West Loop, as nearly 2,000 people gathered to set a Guiness World Record for the most shots of the drink taken simultaneously. Images inundated social media as the two-term governor poured shots from behind the bar, and tilted the bottle back for a swig. As a billionaire who has his sights set on 2028 — and more immediately, re-election in November — the “everyman” image may not hurt.

The event drew goodwill, energy and benefitted charity . But the timing of it, the same weekend the city experienced one of the most violent weekends this summer with 41 people shot and three killed, opened Pritzker to some negative coverage . Pritzker addressed the violence and held a labor event on Sunday in the area where a mass shooting had taken place the prior night.

At the same time, President Donald Trump , who last year tried to take credit for a marked drop in Chicago crime, which began its slide before he took office, now puts the blame for a 1% year-over-year rise in homicides squarely on Pritzker. He said he would send federal law enforcement but needed local officials to ask him.

“I am awaiting the call. Nobody should be forced to live under these conditions,” Trump wrote on Truth Social . “Like D.C. and others, they will have almost no crime, FAST! The State and City can’t do what I do. Governor Pritzker, CALL!!!”

In a post on X , Pritzker noted that the Trump administration slashed anti-violence funding efforts in Chicago in 2025. Last year’s immigration deployment in the city also stirred violent clashes.

“When Trump last sent agents to Illinois, they murdered a father and shot an innocent woman in broad daylight — then attempted to cover it up,” Pritzker wrote. “We need to keep reducing violence, but this President does not make it easier. If only he hadn’t defunded the very programs that help.”

Beyond that, a Pritzker spokesman took issue with criticism of the Malört event.

“In the age of social media where you can barely verify if an actual human or a Russian bot is posting, the press should treat criticism from a few loud online voices with more skepticism,” Pritzker spokesman Matt Hill said. “If there wasn’t this double standard, then we would anticipate seeing more stories about all the time President Trump spends doomscrolling and golfing.”

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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Lauren Zola.

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