As if voters didn’t have enough on their plates ahead of next week’s Presidential Election, it’s apparently already time to start thinking about the midterms which will follow.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, the Bay State’s elder but junior senator, on Sunday announced he will seek a third term in office in 2026, proclaiming that at 78 years old he’s as energized as he’s ever been.

Markey broke the news during an appearance on WCVB, when he said that it’s not the age of the candidate, but the age of their ideas that matter.

Judged against that metric, the long-serving congressman said he’s “always been the youngest guy in the room working on the Green New Deal, on climate change to make sure the funding is there for wind and solar, all electric vehicles.”

“One trillion dollars was in the Inflation Reduction Act — $1 trillion — for that vision to come to pass. I’m the leader on the effort to have a privacy bill of rights for teenagers and children because big tech companies are taking advantage of them and causing a mental health crisis in our country, according to the Surgeon General of the United States, and it’s my legislation that will pass to correct that,” he said.

“My goal is to make NRA stand for ‘Not Relevant Anymore’ in American politics. So: I’m ready for the fight, I’ve never been more energized, and I’m ready to stand for reelection and that is my full intention,” Markey said.

Markey would be 80 when he retakes the oath of office — not even close to the first time — if he’s elected again in 2026.

The Malden native has been a fixture in Massachusetts politics for decades, after serving nearly 13 two-year terms in the House. He’s won two reelections to the Senate, holding onto the seat he won through a special election in 2013, after then-U.S. Sen. John Kerry was made Secretary of State in the Obama Administration.

The last year Markey serves in this six-year term will represent his 50th as a member of the Bay State’s congressional delegation. To lend that time some perspective: VHS tapes were introduced to U.S. markets in 1977, the year after Markey’s first House election, used for more than three decades, and then discontinued in 2008 while Markey was still in office.

A spokesperson for the MassGOP told the Herald that it’s time to give the senator the same sort of treatment.

“Some politicians simply don’t know when to step aside. Regardless of age, his policies are woefully out of touch with Massachusetts voters. We look forward to challenging him in 2026—if he even makes it through the primary,” the spokesperson said.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has been in office since 2012 and is seeking her own third term in this election cycle, is 75 years old.

According to the Pew Research Center, as of the start of the 118th Congress in January of 2023 the average age of a serving U.S. Senator was 65.5 years, up from the 64.8 year average seen with the 117th Congress in 2021.

Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is the oldest currently serving upper-chamber lawmaker at 91 years old. Vermont’s Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is 83 and and Kentucky’s Sen. Mitch McConnell 82 years old, followed by 5 more “Silent Generation” senators.

Born in 1946, Markey and the vast majority of his fellow senators fall under the “Baby Boomer Generation,” members of which were born at some point during the two decades following the end of World War II in 1945.

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