O’Connor comes out swinging
GOP candidate issues debate dare a day after primary win
A day after winning the Republican primary for senator, Kevin O’Connor took to the campaign trail Wednesday by taking the fight to Sen. Edward Markey’s home turf.
O’Connor, who beat entrepreneur Shiva Ayyadurai in Tuesday’s primary, held a press conference in Malden, where he challenged Markey to a debate.
“He’s been at this job for 40 years, and he’s gotten nothing done,” the Dover attorney said. “I am not a career politician.”
O’Connor held his press conference on the grounds of the Malden Police Department, standing alongside Officer Michael Polston, who lives around the corner from Markey.
“Markey has known him for decades and cannot look him in the eye,” he said. “Well I can. We’re going to fight for law and order.”
Asked what he would say to the families of the numerous unarmed people of color who have died at the hands of the police, O’Connor said he would tell them he “loves” them.
“We have the best policing in America,” he said. “Everybody acknowledges that we can improve. Some of them (police killings) have been egregious. … I’m ready to engage in that debate. … I always want to know what the facts are … but that starts with safe streets.”
O’Connor accused Markey of not spending enough time in the state he represents.
“It’s not fair that Maryland has three senators and Massachusetts has one,” he said.
Asked whether he supports Markey’s Green New Deal, O’Connor called it a “job killer that will jack our electricity bills up.”
As for the coronavirus pandemic, he said, “Let’s follow the science, but I think the science favors going back to school.”
The Massachusetts Municipal Police Coalition has endorsed O’Connor.
“Kevin supports law enforcement as an important component of safe communities and has said recent calls to defund the police are misguided,” MMPC President Harry MacGilvray said.
“I really don’t know a lot about my Republican opponent right now, other than the fact that he says that he is an ardent Donald Trump supporter. And I don’t think the state of Massachusetts this year has any intention of giving Donald Trump another vote on the Senate floor to block a progressive agenda from being implemented next year in the United States of America,” Markey said.
Asked about whether he would debate his opponent, Markey deferred to his campaign manager, John Walsh, “about any details.” But a spokeswoman for Markey did not respond to a request for comment about that or the other issues O’Connor raised.