How Ed Markey Defeated Joe Kennedy

For the better part of a year, Senator Edward Markey was a legislator spiraling toward a forced retirement, a veteran progressive whose legacy in Massachusetts would soon be reduced to a footnote in the latest chapter of the Kennedy dynasty. Polls taken last fall showed Representative Joe Kennedy III trouncing Markey in a Democratic primary; at the height of the coronavirus pandemic this spring, it was unclear whether Markey could even muster enough signatures to get on the ballot.

Tonight, however, Markey accomplished what no Democrat or Republican had ever done: He defeated a Kennedy in Massachusetts.

Markey’s victory in the nation’s highest-profile Democratic Senate primary—which all but ensures him another six-year term—is a win for progressives.