We recently wrote about the possibility of Rep. Joe Kennedy challenging Senator Ed Markey in Massachusetts. That’s not likely to happen now. The new de facto leader of the Democratic party has gone on record endorsing Ed Markey.
Sam Dorman reports at FOX News:
AOC endorses Ed Markey, Green New Deal co-sponsor, ahead of possible Senate primaryRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Friday endorsed the reelection bid of Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a champion of her “Green New Deal,” against a potential primary challenge by Rep. Joe Kennedy III.”Ed Markey is a proud and strong progressive champion for working families — not just in Massachusetts but across the country,” she said.Markey, 73, joined the Senate in a 2013 special election before winning a full term the following year. The 38-year-old Kennedy, a grandson of late senator and attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, was first elected to the House in 2012.The endorsement seemed to be personal for Ocasio-Cortez, who received early support from Markey for her ambitious proposals to address the specter of climate change.”When I first got to Congress and we started to discuss big bold plans, a solution on the scale of the crisis, many members shied away,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a video released on Friday.”A lot of people said we can’t do too much, we can’t go too fast in order to pursue change for the American people,” she added. “And Ed Markey was one of the few people that had the courage to stand up and take a chance, and take a chance on a freshman congresswoman.”
You can watch AOC’s endorsement video below:
This renders Kennedy’s possible challenge to Markey basically over. There is no way he would cross her by challenging Markey after her endorsement.
Stephanie Murray of Politico reports he is still considering it:
Dems sweat fallout from Massachusetts Senate clashHome-state Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be the headliner when Massachusetts Democrats gather for their annual state convention Saturday. But her rising presidential campaign fortunes won’t be the only thing delegates are buzzing about.An impending primary election clash between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Joe Kennedy III has the party holding its collective breath, awaiting a potentially epic and expensive race that stands to divide the state’s political class and reverberate across the ballot next year…Kennedy has not yet confirmed that he will challenge the 73-year-old senator. He is expected to make a decision by the end of the month. But he is gearing up for a run just in case, and the prospect has heightened intrigue in a political election cycle that is already shaping up to have an unusually high number of primary challenges in Massachusetts.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
Lisa Mascaro of ABC News puts it in perspective:
Ocasio-Cortez’s backing gives Markey the nod from a new generation of potential leadership and reflects her own political instinct to support those aligned with her liberal sensibility, even longtime insiders, rather than simply insurgents or fellow upstart challengers.Markey said he’s “proud” to have her support. “Climate change is the existential threat of our time, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the kind of generational leader we need to make the bold goals of the Green New Deal a reality,” he said in a statement.
If Kennedy threw his hat into that ring now, he would be putting himself at odds with the Squad.
There’s no way he’d do that to himself.
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