The 2026 race to represent the Bay State in the upper chamber of Congress is potentially set to expand, after a local nonprofit organizer expressed his interest in the seat currently occupied by long-serving U.S. Sen. Ed Markey.

Markey, according to potential challenger Earl Martin Phalen, has done an excellent job representing the commonwealth over his many years in office.

“Sen. Markey has done and continues to do great stuff for the country,” Phalen told the Herald.

However, according to Phalen, it’s important to consider the work that must be done in the years to come.

“He’ll be 86 years old at the end of the next term, and while there are no term limits or age limits in Congress, I think it’s time for a younger, fresher perspective,” Phalen said.

Earl Martin Phalen. (Phalen Explore 2026 photo)

Times have changed since Markey first entered Congress, according to Phalen, and despite his best efforts, the current senator comes from an era when people had opportunities no longer afforded to anyone.

“People born in the 1940s had a 90% chance making more money than their parents,” Phalen said. “People born in the 1980s had a 40% chance of doing better than their parents.”

Phalen, according to a press release his exploratory committee kicked out on Wednesday, is a Yale and Harvard educated nonprofit CEO who grew up in Norwood and currently resides in Quincy. His company, Great Jobs KC, is “one of the largest charter school systems in North America with 22 schools across the nation.”

According to the nonprofit CEO, a potential campaign would focus on grassroots efforts in the neighborhoods he’s come to know through his work.

Among his potential advisors, he said, are his brother, former Vice Chair of the State Street Corporation Jim Phalen, and his friends from college, former U.S. President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama.

“I’ll be leaning on that relationship quite heavily, to make sure I’m talking to and meeting with the right people,” Phalen said.

Phalen is at least the second person to express interest in challenging Markey in a Democratic Primary. Last week, Alex Rikleen, a fantasy sports writer and former teacher, launched his own bid to unseat Markey.

The last person to challenge the sitting senator, former U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, lost the primary by more than 10 points and became the first member of his storied political family to lose an election in the Bay State.