Ed Markey, Joe Kennedy, and Waiting-Your-Turn Politics in Massachusetts

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The baby boomer/millennial test of wills in the House, most notably between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has overshadowed the impatience of Generation X office seekers with the gerontocracy that presides over the Senate. The chamber’s transformation into a hornet’s nest of Trumpian enablers is emboldening younger candidates who no longer want to wait for these solons to move on.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, 77, and his politics of legislative obstructionism will face challenges this year from Democrat Amy McGrath, 44, a retired Marine fighter pilot, and potentially 40-year-old Matt Jones, a beloved sports talk radio host who happens to be quite progressive (he’s considering a run). Maine’s Susan Collins, 66, is feeling the heat on her decision to back Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court from several Democrats, including 47-year-old Sara Gideon, speaker of the Maine House of Representatives.

It is easy to cheer for youthful challengers who would upend the stale Senate status quo, but what about races where the philosophical differences are not as stark? In Massachusetts, one of the fiercest generational battles in American politics is already under way. Representative Joe Kennedy III, 38, is contemplating a run for the Senate seat currently held by Ed Markey, 73, who has served more than 40 years in Congress. Markey also has two other Democratic challengers: Steve Pemberton, a corporate human resources executive, and Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labor attorney.

Kennedy recently commissioned a poll that showed him beating Markey by a small margin. A “Jump in, Joe” grassroots drafting effort is also nudging him along. During his nearly four decades in the House, Markey has faced no serious challengers. He won his Senate seat easily in a low-turnout 2013 special election featuring a little-known Republican opponent after John Kerry became Obama’s second secretary of state.

Read more: https://prospect.org/article/ed-markey-joe-kennedy-and-waiting-your-turn-politics-massachusetts
(American Prospect)

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1. Key section

If Warren wins the Democratic nomination and presidency, her Senate seat would open up, and Kennedy musing about a statewide campaign now could merely be a signal to other ambitious Massachusetts pols that he intends to take over what was his great-uncle Ted’s seat for nearly 47 years. That special election could even happen in November 2020, if Warren decides to bet on herself and resigns her seat after securing the nomination. That would allow a Democrat to most likely occupy that seat from the time a potential President Warren takes the nomination, instead of a temporary replacement installed by Republican Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. And the fact that mechanisms exist for Warren’s opening to be decided by special election in 2020 likely explains the timing of Kennedy’s whisper campaign.