Markey, bold insurgent, is outflanking Kennedy
BOSTON » Stepping out of the rain on a dreary Saturday morning, Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III made no attempt to hide his frustration as he raced from neighborhood to neighborhood in a city as synonymous with his family as it is with the Green Monster.
Kennedy is trailing U. S. Sen. Edward J. Markey in every poll ahead of the Senate primary on Tuesday, and may become the first Kennedy to lose a race in Massachusetts. He is struggling with idealistic young liberals and older, affluent white Democrats, the sort of voters who in an earlier era idolized his grandfather, Robert F. Kennedy, and his great- uncles.
Kennedy pointed to his strength with workingclass Democrats and voters of color who are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, all but scorning what he suggested was the hypocrisy of white liberals.
“For a progressive left that says that they care about these racial inequities, these structural inequities, economic inequities, health care inequities, the folks that are on the other side of that are overwhelmingly supporting me in this race,” he said. “Yet there seems to be a cognitive dissonance.”
It wasn’t supposed to be this way in the minds of Massachusetts Democrats, who have spent a lifetime watching a parade of Kennedys win elections against little opposition. When Kennedy first considered leaving his House seat last year to challenge Markey in a primary race, some in the party wondered if the 74- year- old incumbent would step aside for the 39year- old political scion.
Instead, Markey, who was elected to the House before Kennedy was born, has harnessed the energy of the ascendant left and wielded his rival’s gilded legacy against him. And he has used his support from Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, whom he featured in an ad, and their joint authorship of the Green New Deal to establish himself as the clear front- runner.
That backing may help him avoid the fate of other longtime incumbents upended by young progressives, among them Rep. William Lacy Clay of Missouri, who was defeated in a primary contest in August, and Joseph Crowley of New York, who was stunned by Ocasio- Cortez two years ago.
Markey’s strength illustrates the growing clout of progressives in the Democratic Party, particularly in states and districts that are heavily metropolitan and filled with well- educated voters. Each of the Democrats who have unseated incumbents in primaries in 2018 or this year did so in House seats anchored in cities or close- in suburbs, which is where most of the votes in Massachusetts can be found.
What is so striking about the Senate race here, though, is that it is the incumbent who framed himself as the bold insurgent.
Ocasio- Cortez’s endorsement provided the validation for that approach, Markey said.
“When she said, ‘ It’s not your age but the age of your ideas,’ when she said that Ed Markey was the generational change that we have been waiting for, it helped to make clear that in this race I am the youngest guy because it’s about ideas,” Markey said.
The contest has grown ugly in the final weeks, as Kennedy has highlighted Markey’s history on racial justice issues and Markey has been urged to quiet supporters online who have made jokes about the assassinations of the congressman’s grandfather and his great- uncle, John F. Kennedy. It has also divided Democratic leaders in the state and in Washington, where Sen. Chuck Schumer is supporting Markey while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is backing Kennedy.
Markey was outspending Kennedy nearly 4 to 1 on commercials in the Boston market in the final week of the campaign.