Sen. Ed Markey, 80, says he’s the voice of his state’s youth. They believe him.

BOSTON — On paper, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts seems primed to be the next in a string of older Democrats thrown out of office.

At 80, he’s the oldest Senate Democrat running for reelection this year. He recently said he didn’t know what artificial-intelligence platforms were inside his devices. The Markeyverse — a loose network of meme accounts run by young progressives that Markey credited for his last election victory — has diminished.