Brookline's 'Sledgehammer Shannon' Running For U.S. Senate

BROOKLINE, MA —A Brookline labor attorney is officially challenging Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey for his seat in the 2020 election. Shannon Liss-Riordan announced her campaign Monday against the senator who has been in Congress since 1976.

"Washington needs a fresh voice," says Liss-Riordan in her announcement video posted to Twitter.

"My entire career has been driven by my beliefs: fighting for justice and equal treatment for women, for blue collar workers and their families," she said in the video. "Some people have called me the 'sledgehammer,' Others say I'm corporate America's worst nightmare. My kids just call me 'mom.'"

In the video, she says the rich and powerful have been writing the rules and stacking the deck against everyone else.

"I'm tired of it, and I don't think I'm alone," she said. "This election the people of Massachusetts will have a choice: maintain the status quo in Washington, or vote for me and break it."

Liss-Riordan is known for representing workers in a number of cases against "gig economy" companies that save on labor costs, she argues, by misclassifying employees as independent contractors. Some of her most notable cases involve victories against Starbucks, FedEx and American Airlines, according to the bio on her firm's website. She's also filed lawsuits on Uber, Lyft and Grubhub.

She was called "Uber's worst nightmare" by San Francisco Magazine and Mother Jones called her "Sledgehammer Shannon."

She graduated from Harvard University in 1990 with her bachelor's degree and then obtained her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1996.

She's a partner at Lichten & Liss-Riordan based on Boylston Street in Boston.

Shortly after Liss-Riordan made her announcement, Markey issued a press release outlining key political positions in his campaign, according to the Associated Press. He said the country's democracy was under assault by President Donald Trump and what he said was Trump's "hate, division, and inequality."

"We are all called to stand up in the fight for the future of our country," Markey said in the release. "I want to continue helping to lead that resistance in the United States Senate armed with an agenda of jobs and justice and a deep commitment to the freedoms born in the Commonwealth."

Markey spent decades in the U.S. House before winning Democrat John Kerry's former Senate seat in 2013 and he has been working to align himself with fresher faces in recent months.

He teamed up with freshman Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York earlier this year to launch the Green New Deal, the Associated Press reported.

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).