Senator Ed Markey defeats Kennedy in Massachusetts #edmarkey #kennedy

 

#politics #massachusetts #elections # democrats #senator

Senator Ed Markey on Tuesday backed away from an attempt by Representative Joe Kennedy to end nearly 50 years in elected office, leading to the ruling family's insult to the Democratic Party that had never lost an election in Massachusetts before.

The legislator long ago won the primaries by campaigning as the race's most progressive person, emphasizing his roots as the son of a Malden milk seller.

"We made it clear that we would rather lose the fight as hard as we can for what we believe in than for a compromise," Markey said in his victory speech. "The progressive movement knows how to fight. We will not give up."

About a year ago, when it became clear that a Congressman would be running, Markey visited his parents' grave, thought about what to do and what his parents would do, and concluded that he should run for re-election, according to campaign manager John Walsh.

His decision can be described as foolish. Kennedy, 39, has led the polls from the start, launching a campaign focused on social and economic justice while introducing a generational change to the 74-year-old Marky, who has served in Congress for more than four decades.

But his critics attacked Kennedy for not disclosing a reason for running alongside his ambition, and Markey deflected his opponent's glamour by highlighting the strength of some of the party's brightest stars.

The Democrats did not disagree much about politics, but Markey established himself early on as the first to embrace liberal causes, citing his co-authorship of the Green New Deal and support for "Medicare for All." Marky was dressed in retro-hip Knicks and sided with New York Vice President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the party phenomenon, and Sunrise Movement, a youth group focused on fighting climate change, to show it was of the times

"When it comes to progressive leadership, it is not your age that matters," Ocasio-Cortez said in an advertisement. "Ed Markey is the leader we need."

Markey suggested that Kennedy was a legislative lightweight while claiming to have written hundreds of laws providing affordable internet to schools and libraries, raising fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, raising billions of dollars for Alzheimer's research and even deterring automated calls. He said he had led political revolutions since at least the 1980s, when he introduced the nuclear freeze resolution and nearly a million people gathered in Central Park, New York, to demand an end to the nuclear arms race.

Kennedy responded by poking holes in Marky's long record, including his vote for the Iraq War, NAFTA, the Patriot Act and the 1994 Crimes Act.

Overall, Kennedy claimed that he would be a better senator, who could fulfil his mandate and build the party across the country. He ousted Marky to spend less time at home in Massachusetts than any other member of the state's congressional delegation, even when Senator Elizabeth Warren was running for president, citing the Boston Globe analysis.

But by the last month of the campaign, as mail voting began, polls showed Markey was ahead. There were signs that Kennedy was disappointed. He told the media in August that the coronavirus pandemic “undoubtedly hinders a competitor” because it limits his ability to communicate personally with people, which he saw as one of his advantages in racing. However, a masked Kennedy went on a quick tour across the state and garnered the endorsement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who noted the efforts of a member of Congress across the country in 2018 to overturn the House of Representatives.

As the pandemic raged, Markey reversed former President John F. Kennedy's call to action. He said, "It is time to start asking what your country can do for you." In response, the Kennedy campaign finally portrayed him explicitly as a descendant of the legacy formed by former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, former President Kennedy and former Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, his grandfather and uncles. One television advertisement narrator said that the struggle for universal health care, jobs and opportunities, and racial justice "was in his blood."

On Tuesday, however, Markey blocked the Kennedy path to the room his carriers once roamed.

In his concession speech, Kennedy said his family "was called in a lot more than I expected" and praised them for showing him "an example of what public service should be."

Then he said to his two children, "If there's one message from your dad tonight, it's this: Always spend your life in the ring. It's worth the fight."