here’s why: ed markey’s victory is a victory for ordinary people. it is a victory for the power of love, the power of vision and the power of justice. for the first time in history, a kennedy has lost in massachusetts. let me be clear that there is nothing particularly wrong with joe kennedy. he has been a perfectly fine congressman in many ways. ed markey, however, has been a strong advocate for average working people against big money and big oil. he is a co-architect of the green new deal. and when all his democratic colleagues were siding with wall street, ed markey was with main street. starting in the early 90’s, markey voted and spoke against the financial deregulation that led to the financial collapse of 2008.
in his recent piece “flashback: ed markey’s battles with wall street,” david sirota quotes ron suskind’s book confidence men as saying that “markey could bid fair claim to being farther ahead of the curve on the financial crisis than almost any elected official in washington.”
sirota also points out that “[b]ack in the early months of obama’s first term, markey led the battle to prevent wall street firms from using taxpayer bailout money to pay their executives huge bonuses.”
the defeat of joe kennedy was also notable because powerful democrats like house speaker nancy pelosi backed kennedy. this despite her claim and the claim of other democratic party leaders that the reason they don’t welcome progressive challengers such as alexandria ocasio-cortez is that the party always protects its incumbent members. yet when long time incumbent progressive us senator ed markey is challenged from his right, some of those same leaders lined up beside kennedy (and lost).
markey’s victory as a progressive incumbent, coupled with multiple stories this year of progressive challengers defeating incumbents, shows that the power of ideas and values is more important than the power of incumbency. this is great news for working people in this country who very clearly want affordable universal health care, a living wage, bold climate action and an economy that works for everyone.
