After winning a contentious Democratic primary over Congressman Joe Kennedy III in September, Massachusetts U.S. Senator Ed Markey is in line to win a second six-year term in Tuesday’s general election.
Mid-October polls showed Markey with an almost 40-point lead over Republican challenger Kevin O’Connor – a Dover lawyer with no prior political experience.
Markey campaigned in Pittsfield last week just after voting against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett to rally Democrats before a particularly fraught Election Day.
“We are not agonizing, we are organizing," Markey said. "We know that much is at stake from protecting healthcare for hundreds of thousands of Americans with pre-existing conditions to fighting for a living wage for every person across the country, to taking bold climate action to save our planet. We need to ensure a future where every person is free to make their own healthcare decisions, where our leaders believe in science and where the NRA stands for Not Relevant Anymore in American politics.”
Markey – who served in the House from 1976 until 2013 – was first elected to the Senate in a special election after John Kerry was appointed Secretary of State, and then won a full term in 2014.
O’Connor – who says he views climate change as an important issue – has hit Markey for not voting for his own signature piece of legislation, the Green New Deal, when it was brought the Senate floor in spring 2019.
“The Green New Deal is not a serious proposal," said O'Connor. "Senator Markey didn't even vote for it. Most people in Massachusetts don't know, it was put up for a vote and Senator Markey didn't have the courage to vote for it. He voted present. So he can't even vote for that proposal, and that was a year ago."
Markey says his “present” vote was a protest against Republican Senate leadership.
“Well, I introduced the Green New Deal," he explained. "And, again, Mitch McConnell decided to make a mockery of the legislation by bringing it out onto the floor without, by the way, any hearings, without any science, without any of the victims of forest fires or storm or wind destroying portions of their state. No witnesses at all. So what he intended to do was to just create a political stunt.”
O’Connor says he wants to address climate change through private enterprise.
“Many Americans agree that we want to be carbon neutral by 2050," he told WAMC. "That would be my goal as well. And the way we achieve that is we promote innovation in terms of sources of energy and carbon capture. Just we basically turn to technology. And we pump money into research institutions like the University of Massachusetts, Harvard, MIT, and we come up with the game changing technology.”
In a deeply blue state where popular Republican Governor Charlie Baker has made it clear he won’t vote with his party on Election Day, O’Connor stands by President Trump.
“I'm voting for the candidate who is best on public safety," said O'Connor. "The opposing candidate wants to basically - and certainly Senator Markey - they want to defund the police and they want to abolish ICE. They will make our neighborhoods less safe. I think the Republicans candidate, the administration, is much better in that regard.”
Markey says the last thing Massachusetts needs is to send Trump another Senate vote.
“Donald Trump and the Republicans in the Senate are refusing to provide any additional help for the cities and towns of Massachusetts,” he said.
O’Connor and Markey also differ over Question 2 on the Massachusetts ballot, which asks voters to institute a ranked choice voting system for the 2022 elections. O’Connor opposesit, calling it unnecessarily complicated, while Markey has embraced it.
“By looking at what people felt was their second choice, it would then give us a clear reflection of what the sentiment of the voters of Massachusetts had been in them casting a vote for that office on that day, and I just think it will advance the cause of democracy.”
The last time Massachusetts had a Republican Senator was when Scott Brown won a special election in 2010 and served out a term that ended in 2013. Brown, now U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, was defeated by Elizabeth Warren in 2012.
