Whenever pundits try to form an all-inclusive storyline for what is currently happening in the world of politics, they usually are forced to ignore situations that cut against the grain. It's inconvenient while trying to explain "the voters are feeling X right now" when you stumble upon an individual contest where the voters are doing exactly the opposite thing. As Al Gore might say, sometimes you have to deal with inconvenient truths.

I certainly don't exclude myself from that statement -- at times, I've been just as guilty as other pundits of buying into a sweeping storyline that attempts to take the pulse of the American voter while brushing off data that directly contradicts such a storyline. Which is why it is worth pointing out that today's Democratic primary race in Massachusetts seems to be one of those "doesn't quite fit the conventional wisdom" types of races.

One of this year's storylines within the Democratic Party is that of youth conquering age -- younger challengers defeating members of Congress who have remained in office for a very long time. This anti-gerontocracy movement has seen some notable successes, dethroning elderly Democrats whose time seems to have passed them by. And while not universally true, in general this has meant young candidates who are much more ideologically progressive beating Democrats who are much more establishment or centrist. So that's become the storyline in many media reports -- that of a youthful progressive insurgency shaking up the Democratic Party's stodginess in a generational battle for control.

In Massachusetts, however, that storyline is flipped on its head. Sitting Senator Ed Markey is the oldest Democrat running for re-election in the Senate right now, since he is 80 years old. If he wins re-election, he will thus be 86 years old by the end of his next term. That's not just old, but really old. He is being challenged in today's primary by Representative Seth Moulton, who is (by comparison) a spry and youthful 47 years old. However, in this race, Moulton is running to Markey's right, not to his left.

Massachusetts is about as liberal a state as can be imagined, it is worth pointing out. This isn't some purple state that swings back and forth between the parties much -- it is instead deep blue. So whichever candidate wins today's primary is almost guaranteed to win the November general election.

Moulton has made his insurgent campaign all about age and generational change (which is understandable). Here's how he puts it on the campaign trail:

It's going to be hard for independent voters in Ohio or Texas to vote for a Democrat if they think he or she represents a party of 80-year-olds. You might love [Texas Democratic Senate nominee] James Talarico, but there's a big difference between saying he's going to go to Washington and be a part of a group like Ed Markey versus a next generation leader.

He's got a point, since he's running against a guy who has been in Congress since Gerald Ford was president. And after the disastrous 2024 campaign of Joe Biden went down in flames, Democratic voters might indeed be considering age as a big factor in who represents them.

Moulton is also somewhat of a contrarian, an image he cemented by both leading an effort to deny Nancy Pelosi her leadership position in the House in 2018 and mounting his own presidential campaign in 2020 (which didn't get very far -- he didn't even qualify for the primary debates). Moulton is described as "more centrist" than Markey, but he's not all that far away on the political spectrum (he's no Joe Manchin, to put it another way). Some of his supporters accept him as a progressive, even. But he is known for occasionally making waves, as he did a few years ago after the Republicans started making such a big deal over trans sports, saying: "I have two little girls, I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I'm supposed to be afraid to say that." This was met with a wave of condemnation by much of the party at the time, and since then he has tried to walk back his stance on the issue somewhat. To his credit, even before he made those remarks, he cosponsored the Transgender Bill of Rights, so he does have a case to make that he's not as anti-trans as some portray him.

Ed Markey is running as a revolutionary, which is a popular theme in the state that hosted the original Boston Tea Party. He's been endorsed by his fellow Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, as well as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He was the Senate author of the Green New Deal. Those are all pretty sterling progressive credentials. Markey has leaned in to the issue of age on the campaign trail as well, with a pretty good talking point:

From my perspective, it's not your age, it is the age of your ideas, and I've always been the youngest guy in the world when it comes to ideas. So, I look ahead, I lead the way, and I challenge the establishment, not only from the Republican Party, but from the Democratic Party as well.

That's a pretty good comeback, you've got to admit. Markey has promised that, if re-elected, it will be his final term in the Senate -- although, as previously noted, he will be 86 years old by the end of it.

Markey's political ideology is to the left of Moulton's, which plays well in Massachusetts. And he's already had the experience of beating a much-younger challenger in 2020, when he defeated Representative Joe Kennedy III in the primary (who had the benefit of being a member of the state's most famous political dynasty). That race, however, was the inverse of this one, since Kennedy ran as an unabashed progressive challenging Markey from the left. Kennedy even got Nancy Pelosi's endorsement, but in the end it wasn't enough to defeat Markey.

This time around it seems like Markey's got an easier path to victory, since he's been polling anywhere from 20 to even 30 points ahead of Moulton. A Moulton upset tonight would be enormous news (and would feed into another pundit storyline from this election cycle, that of: "The pollsters can't get it right in Democratic primaries!").

But the storyline of youth-versus-gerontocracy only goes so far. It doesn't fit for every contest or every candidate. After all, neither Elizabeth Warren (77 years old) or Bernie Sanders (84 years old) could exactly be described as a spring chicken. They remain popular within the party because of their ideas and because they are seen as true fighters for the cause. Which might, in the end, be the deciding factor in today's Massachusetts Senate primary. Because sometimes ideology proves to be more important than how long ago you were born.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant