The Pressure Is On Joe Kennedy As Senate Race Comes Down Stretch

U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy will make his final push Monday to make up ground polls say he's yielded to Sen. Ed Markey as the congressman tours the state to convince those who haven't voted early or by mail that he's the man Democrats want for the future.

The latest polls suggest he'll need to squeeze all the pixie dust the Kennedy name still holds in Massachusetts to do it.

If Kennedy loses, he'd be the first member of the dynastic family to come up short in a Massachusetts election. And he'd be doing it in a race in which many Democrats wondered from the outset whether was even necessary.

Kennedy, 39, was politically secure, representing the state's 4th Congressional District in Washington. Markey, 74, was a solidly liked, if not wildly popular, progressive who bolstered his standing by co-sponsoring the Green New Deal with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Even Kennedy has admitted there are few policy differences between the two, insisting the Democrats have more abstract differences.

"The difference between me and Senator Markey isn’t political ideology," Kennedy tweeted Sunday. "It’s the way we serve and show up for the people who need help most."

But 24 hours before Election Day, it's unknown if that pitch will be enough. Markey leads Kennedy by double digits in almost every major poll, and Kennedy's frustration with his inability to capture the support of white progressive voters has been bubbling.

In a story that ran Monday morning in The New York Times titled "A Kennedy Struggles In A Massachusetts Senate Race," the titular character lamented as much.

"For a progressive left that says that they care about these racial inequities, these structural inequities, economic inequities, health care inequities, the folks that are on the other side of that are overwhelmingly supporting me in this race," he told the paper. "Yet there seems to be a cognitive dissonance."

It's a stark difference from when Kennedy first mulled entering the race, buoyed by early polling that suggested he would be well-favored to unseat Markey, who despite his favorability was far from a household name. But a groundswell of youthful support, anchored by his partnership and endorsement from Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has helped frame Markey as a champion of environmentalism and tilted the race's energy his way, if polling is any indication of the results.

Kennedy's highest-profile endorsement, meanwhile, came from the party's establishment in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was a longtime colleague of Markey in the House.

Kennedy and Markey will spend Monday rallying voters — Kennedy from Springfield to Worcester to Lowell before finishing in Dorchester, Markey in Brookline and several Boston neighborhoods.

It's more traditional campaigning than the race is used to. Both candidates had to scrap strategies once the pandemic took hold, and several recent debates reshaped the narrative as two men without much political daylight between them sought separation.

Kennedy's campaign accused Markey's of fostering a vitriolic tone that fueled online harassment and death threats toward the congressman. Markey's campaign distanced itself from his purported supporters, while the senator himself condemned the negative attacks during a televised debate.

It took Markey until August to take aim at what he argued was Kennedy coasting on his political bloodlines. Markey landed the viral haymaker of the race during a debate in which he challenged Kennedy to tell his father not to contribute to a PAC working against the senator.

Kennedy leaned into the opportunity to tout his family's accomplishments, dating all the way back to his great uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and grandfather, U.S. Sen. and Attorney General Bobby Kennedy.

The winner of the primary will face whomever emerges from the Republican side, where lawyer Kevin O'Connor is taking on Shiva Ayyadurai, who failed in his attempt to defeat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2018.