Green New Deal saved one career
Sen. Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who recently warded off a primary challenge from a Kennedy scion, probably saved his career by authoring the Green New
Deal resolution with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez of New York last year.
When Rep. Joe Kennedy, a rising star in the House, entered the Senate race, it looked as if Markey would lose. No Kennedy had ever lost an election in Massachusetts. Markey, who won his seat in a 2013 special election, wasn’t disliked, but he wasn’t particularly well known. A poll in August 2019 showed Kennedy ahead by 17 points. In April, The Boston
Globe reported that hindered by coronavirus, Markey might have trouble collecting enough signatures to even get on the ballot.
But the young environmentalists of the Sunrise Movement — who’ve championed the Green New Deal more than any other organization — made saving Markey a major political priority.
“Markey was the most prominent figure on the Green New Deal aside from AOC,” said Varshini Prakash, the Sunrise Movement’s executive director. “If he goes down in a Democratic primary, immediately the story that gets spun out of that is, ‘ The Green New Deal is a losing political proposition.’”
So Sunrise members, in concert with other young progressives, embarked on one of the most successful branding exercises in recent political history, turning a fairly establishment 74- year- old into a youth culture icon. Prakash recalled the thinking of Sunrise’s political team: “We can help make Ed Markey into this figure on the left, this lovable, quirky older guy who kind of has some of the similar characteristics of somebody like Bernie.”
The success of this endeavor demonstrates both Sunrise’s growing political power and its pragmatism. In truth, Markey isn’t much like Bernie Sanders at all. He’s a liberal and a longtime leader on climate, but he’s neither an outsider nor a purist.
Markey’s reinvention maddened the Kennedy camp.
“This goes to show you that the left doesn’t do their homework and they’re easily won over by bright shiny objects,” a Kennedyaligned source told Politico.
Such grousing misses the point. In boosting Markey, Sunrise sent a message to Democrats, especially those in blue states. You don’t need an impeccable record — if you champion the Green New Deal, the movement will have your back.
Members of Sunrise did normal campaign stuff for Markey, including, said Prakash, making some 200,000 phone calls. More important, though, was the imaginative energy the movement brought to the race.
Sunrise, Markey told me, “knows how to reach people online. And then get them to take action offline.” He called their work “political alchemy.”
The group was behind one of the best campaign ads in years, an arresting spot with a Martin Scorsese vibe that cast Markey as a working- class hero for revolutionary times. It ended with the senator addressing the camera: “With all due respect, it’s time to start asking what your country can do for you.” The line was a brilliant — and risky — deflation of the Kennedy mythos, and a statement about a new generation’s political expectations.
“I just would urge other politicians to get on board, and take the same incredible adventure,” Markey said.
I hope Joe Biden listens. Young voters favor him over President Donald Trump by large margins, but their lack of enthusiasm could dampen turnout.
“The best thing that Joe Biden could do would be to speak in clear, exciting visionary terms about exactly what he plans to do to tackle the climate crisis, racial inequality and economic inequality,” Prakash said.
During the primary, Sunrise gave Biden’s climate plan an F. But once he’d won, the Biden and Sanders campaigns formed joint task forces to come up with policies that the party could unify around. Prakash was part of the climate task force. Its plan, while short of the Green New Deal, is still the most ambitious any Democratic nominee has ever adopted.
“We see it as a core priority for the next two months to help Joe Biden get elected,” Prakash said.
Sunrise can’t just manufacture Markey- style excitement, which depended on Markey’s policy commitments. But if Biden gives Sunrise organizers something to work with, they’ve shown what valuable allies they can be.