MA Senate race is lit! Markey/Kennedy powerhouse is heating up!

[Budi]

I really like them both. But this seems to be politics in the day of saying bye to Establishment candidates & hello to young millennial progressive thinkers.

This is one to watch! go 💙 & 💙.

https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/06/13/ed-markey-joe-kennedy-massachusetts-316556

The Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary faded into the background here in recent months as the coronavirus pandemic overshadowed everything else.
But if the most recent Senate debate between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy III is any indication, that’s about to change.

MA lends us its finest, again.
Thanks MA.

[CentralMass]

1. I like them both but don't think that Kennedy should ha primaried Markey.

[Merlot]

4. Agreed. Not a good look for the Kennedy.

[Budi]

13. Its actually a good look. He is running his online campaign much the way most Progressives are

He is playing by their same rules & not doing a bad job of it either!

I think it shows us that he has a firm desire to add his name for many years to come to our Democratic Senate.

Had Hillary Clinton been our 2016 President, Warren would have been offered a cabinet position.
She had already endorsed Kennedy for her Senate seat should that have happened.

Sen Warren was his Harvard professor & he quotes:

“She was the toughest teacher on campus but the waitlist to be in her class was always a mile long,” Kennedy, now a member of the U.S. House, said of Warren, now a U.S. Senator

I don't believe there's much bad blood between our MA Democrats.
There does appear to be much respect.
💙

[Walleye]

2. A Kennedy from Mass. sounds pretty Establishment to me. Just sayin

[nsd]

3. +1

[Budi]

18. Markey has represented US House & Senate for 44 years.

Forty Four years.

Kennedy is a fine representative to carry the Senate Democratic seat forward into the future.
His lineage has a solid Democratic base, with his own millennial ideas for the future direction of American govt.

Like I said, this is a race to watch since both are well served in MA politics.

[aikoaiko]

5. I don't see this happening with someone with a different last name.

So be it. It's the choice of MA voters.

[sunonmars]

6. Well I personally don't think people should have safe seats or they get complacent

Let the voters decide. If they are both our guys, then frankly, the voters have a good choice.

[Budi]

8. Absolutely. Kennedy can challenge the Senate seat if he wishes.

Its his right to do so & up to his team to run the campaign.

That's American politics.
I'm good with either & have no skin in this State.

Best of Luck to both 💙

[nsd]

7. I see this as the same as AOC vs Crowley and Pressley vs Capuano.

Both Crowley and Capuano were good Democrats and mostly progressive.

Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley ousted them not on ideological or policy or effectiveness grounds, but on generational and ethnic grounds. Kennedy's argument is also generational, though not ethnic.

I don't buy it. If I still lived in Massachusetts I'd vote for Markey, but it is what it is.

[Budi]

9. Agree. Look at Elliot Engel's young & new to politics challenger.

Sanders group has no issue with that new challenger.

So what's the difference in MA.

Says their reasons aren't exactly ironclad across the board.
Whatever. A vote for either Markey or Kennedy would be based on future rather than performance. They both have carried the Dem torch with pride.

[people]

12. AOC supports Markey, not Kennedy

AOC supports Markey, the incumbant.

[boston bean]

10. I like Markey but we need a younger senator.

Markey will be fine.

I am going to vote for Kennedy.

[RhodeIslandOne]

14. Elizabeth Warren will be older than Markey is now the next time she's up.

I don't take such things into consideration.

[boston bean]

17. Word up. We don't need two old senators.

Not when MA vote republican sometimes. Let’s get the seats safe for a while.

We have a repug governor right now.

[RhodeIslandOne]

19. Massachusetts, like California, is not going Republican in a federal office for a long time to come

Charlie Baker is a complete aberration.

[boston bean]

22. Umm. Scott Brown, not that long ago.

[RhodeIslandOne]

24. Over 10 years now since he was elected and quickly dumped

I'd say the landscape has shifted and the bench in Massachusetts has gotten a hell of a lot deeper since Muh Pickup Truck Brown squeaked by a candidate who couldn't bother to campaign in a special election.

[sunonmars]

25. Coakley was a dreadful candidate. She lost twice for Senate and Gov in Mass of all places.

Takes a special one to lose twice in a Dem state.

[RhodeIslandOne]

30. I'm glad Massachusetts has deepened the roster

Kennedy, Pressley, Healey, among others.

[boston bean]

27. I'll vote as I please for my own reasons thank you.

[RhodeIslandOne]

28. Sorry to bother you

[boston bean]

31. No bother.

[stillcool]

11. I was impressed by Kennedy ..

but Markey is comfortable.. like Kerry and Kennedy. A known quantity. He's been representing MA since 1976.

[LAS14]

15. Markey has an incredible progressive record. He's the co-sponsor with AOC of..

... the Green New Deal. I don't see any "comfortableness" about him at all. I'm pissed at Kennedy.

[Budi]

21. So was Sen Elliot Engel a co-sponsor of GND. So then why is his powerful seat being challenged?

SEN Engel:

. I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of the first Green New Deal legislation, authored by Senator Markey and my House colleague Representative Ocasio-Cortez.

“The goals of the Green New Deal, in addition to ending our use of fossil fuel, include expanding job opportunities for Americans in the burgeoning clean energy sector. This will in turn ensure that as our energy sector transforms, so too will our economy. No longer will a select few stand to gain from the economic prosperity a 21st century economy can offer.”

As a member of the Safe Climate Caucus, Engel has authored and successfully passed numerous amendments to appropriations bills that require all new federal vehicles to be alternative fuel vehicles. He has also cosponsored bills that would bring an end to new fossil fuel projects and move our electricity and most transportation systems to 100% renewable energy by 2035.

https://engel.house.gov/latest-news/engel-joins-rep-ocasiocortez-senator-markey-at-green-new-deal-introduction/

Just thought this needed to be noted.

[RhodeIslandOne]

16. Markey on many levels is the more progressive candidate

Kennedy has been an outstanding congressman for the district bordering my area. But his ambition is gonna get the better of him, like his cousin Patrick.

[MagickMuffin]

20. I stand with Senator Markey, Rep Kennedy should wait

What if Elizabeth is the VP candidate, Joe could run for her seat.

Why oust someone who has done an excellent job in his position?

[sunonmars]

23. We have no right to tell someone to wait, its up to them if they want to challenge.

[Budi]

26. Like Engel? Like McGrath? That argument doesn't hold up.

Kennedy has a very progressive agenda as well.

The similarities are so close, one in the House & one in the Senate.

Establishment vs Progressive, fresh face, millennial vs...

You see where this MA race has flipped the Justice Dems argument for new & younger candidates challenging the established Dems, completely on its head?

Joe Kennedy has a very progressive record, btw. So that's a non-comparison point.

Oh well! Good luck to you MA!

[Blasphemer]

29. As someone who favors term limits, I generally support this

I read a good article about Kennedy's reasons last month:

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-rep-joe-kennedy-is-primarying-sen-ed-markey-massachusetts-2020-5

"'For a very long time in Massachusetts, those two seats were held by John Kerry and Ted Kennedy. There was literally a quarter of a century where those were the two Senators, and people's career ambitions came and went over a generation with no opportunity there,' Bernstein said."

I find that problematic. A lot of my family members didn't support Obama's 2008 run initially. They felt he should have waited his turn and let Hilary Clinton get it. I said, if you don't strike when the iron is hot, you might lose out forever. Maybe he would have won in 2016 or he would be the presumptive nominee now, but you just can't tell how these things will go. I don't think anyone's ambitions need to wait until the torch is passed.

[Budi]

32. Thank you.

Look at how many old Repubs are STILL clinging to their seats from 50 years ago. How long was Strom Thurmond in his seat? Didn't he almost die on the Senate floor? Maybe I'm thinking of another lifer Repub.
Politics is stalled more because of the Repub lifers than by any Dem.

Regardless, Yes. Term limits.

[blueniteflower]

33. Voting Markey in primary

I like what he has done for MA. There is very little difference between the two except for age and name. Name trumps for me, because growing up with very little and seeing all the people who had the "right" last name get all the privileges, I would have been inclined to vote for an other up and comer if they were not a Kennedy. Happy to vote for him against any republican though.