BOSTON
(AP) — When Edward M. Kennedy was running for the U.S. Senate for the
first time in 1962, his Democratic primary opponent turned to him during
a debate and said if his last name was Moore — Kennedy’s middle name —
his “candidacy would be a joke.”
Fortunately
for Kennedy, he shared a last name with his brother John F. Kennedy —
then the U.S. president — and went on to win the Senate seat he held for
the next 47 years.
More than half a century
later another Kennedy — U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III — is testing the
staying power of his family’s political mystique in a state that’s
nearly synonymous with the Kennedy clan as he prepares to launch a
Democratic primary challenge against incumbent U.S. Sen. Edward Markey.
Kennedy is expected to formally announce his decision Saturday morning in Boston. If successful, he would be the fourth member of the Kennedy family to win a seat in the Senate.
It’s
a battle that assesses not only the post-Camelot strength of the
Kennedys but also whether the 38-year-old congressman can join the ranks
of a changing Democratic party that has rewarded younger politicians
like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of
Massachusetts for successfully challenging incumbent Democratic members
of the U.S. House.
Last year, underscoring
how Kennedy’s star has been rising, he was tapped to deliver the
Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union
address.
While his name is undoubtedly an
asset — he’s the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy and son of former U.S.
Rep. Joe Kennedy II — many of those watching the budding contest say
Kennedy, who has served in Congress since 2013, still needs to make a
convincing case to voters.
“Of course people
in Massachusetts know the Kennedy name, but it’s largely historical at
this point,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist in
Massachusetts. Marsh noted that Edward Kennedy died a decade ago.
Marsh
credited the younger Kennedy for working hard to win his House seat —
shaking hands, traveling throughout the district and listening to voters
— and said that work appears to be paying off as he weighed a run for
Senate, noting two recent polls that showed Kennedy ahead of the
73-year-old Markey.
Marsh also said the
single biggest goal Democrats have in the coming election — defeating
Trump and undoing his legacy — may play to Kennedy’s perceived strengths
if he can bring a sense of urgency to the race. That message may be a
tougher sell from Markey, she said.
“This
election cycle is so different. The test isn’t what your name is and
where you come from but what you can do to stop Donald Trump,” Marsh
said. “For Markey, the good news is that he has a long record over 40
years, and the bad news is that he has a long record over 40 years and
he’s still working on some of those issues.”
Others see a tighter contest between the two, despite the Kennedy legacy.
Erin
O’Brien, an associate professor of political science at the University
of Massachusetts-Boston, cautions against counting Markey out, pointing
to what she said is a generational split among the electorate. Older
voters may have an emotional connection to the Kennedy clan that younger
voters don’t share.
“Younger Democrats care
more about the environment and climate change,” she said. “At least
initially they’re rallying around Ed Markey.”
O’Brien
said that Kennedy — unlike U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and Pressley, who
also defeated Democratic incumbents in Massachusetts — has yet to come
up with a strong argument about why voters should dump Markey.
“He
is trying to capitalize on squad energy when he has no authenticity to
be a member of the squad,” she said, referring to a group of four
Democratic members of the U.S. House including Rashida Tlaib of
Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez.
By
challenging Markey directly rather than waiting for an open seat,
Kennedy also avoids having to run in a crowded primary, which could
include other members of the state’s congressional delegation.
Unlike
Kennedy, Markey didn’t inherit a famous political name. His father
drove a milk truck and he was the first in his family to get a college
degree.
He had been trying to shore up his
political support before Kennedy’s announcement. Markey has been quick
to point to the endorsement of his campaign by fellow Sen. Elizabeth
Warren. Warren, who taught Kennedy at Harvard Law School, endorsed
Markey in February. She’s spoken highly of both candidates.
Equally
important for Markey as he tries to woo younger and more liberal
Democrats may be his endorsement by Ocasio-Cortez, who teamed up with
Markey early on to push the “Green New Deal” climate change initiative.
It’s
unusual for an incumbent senator to have a serious primary challenge,
and most recently, it’s happened far more to Republicans.
Markey
already faces two lesser-known candidates: Shannon Liss-Riordan, a
workers’ rights lawyer, and Steve Pemberton, a former senior executive
at Walgreens.
Given that there are few
strong ideological divides between the two candidates, voters may end up
choosing sides quickly, said John Cluverius, associate director of the
UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion.
“This
primary isn’t about substance or even style, really. It’s shaping up to
be a ‘Seinfeld’ primary: In most ways, it’s about nothing, but it’s
going to deeply divide people strongly attached to one side or the
other,” he said.
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