Politics

Joe Kennedy loses Massachusetts Democratic primaries to Senator Markey

New York, Sep 2 (efe-epa).- Senator Ed Markey has defeated Representative Joe Kennedy III in the Massachusetts Democratic primary, ending the electoral winning streak of the famous political family in their home state.

Markey’s victory also signals a strongly growing progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which favored him with a strong backing of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Kennedy accepted his defeat and acknowledged Markey’s victory on Tuesday evening.

The defeat of the grandson of assassinated presidential candidate Robert Kennedy is the first by a member of the family in a Massachusetts political contest.

Kennedy, 39, decided to use his popularity as a congressman to challenge Markey, 74.

The primary process in Massachusetts was closely followed, since all its seats, both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, traditionally lean towards the Democrats.

Kennedy was largely seen as a favorite when announced in September last year that he would quit the House of Representatives, a position he had held for eight years, to challenge the nomination of Markey, a progressive, to run in the Nov. 3 election.

Markey, who has been a member of congress for over 40 years, was first elected to the Senate in 2013.

He received Warren’s support, a senator from Massachusetts too, and other Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez, 30, a politician with growing popularity, who has been a congresswoman for only a year and a half.

Kennedy on the other hand received the support of the leader of the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

Ocasio-Cortez was quick to congratulate Markey from her Twitter account for “a victory for the progressive movement, for 21st century policy, and for the Green New Deal,” a reference to a proposed pact for the climate crisis.

The moderate wing of the party trying to set a ground for a social democracy movement led by Senator Bernie Sanders who has tried twice unsuccessfully his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and this electoral period.

He dropped out of the race in April leaving Joe Biden, a former vice-president, to challenge President Donald Trump’s reelection bid. EFE-EPA

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