Around New England

Markey Endorsed By Pro-Green-New-Deal Group — Take That, Joe

August 23, 2019

U.S. Senator Ed Markey has collected another endorsement from a left-of-center interest group, as he tries to stave off a possible challenge from U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III.

The Sunrise Movement, a pro-Green New Deal organization, endorsed Markey on Thursday, August 22.

A co-founder of the Sunrise Movement praised Markey for his selfless commitment to the cause.

“Ed Markey has been with us since the beginning of the fight for the Green New Deal. As the lead Senate sponsor of the Green New Deal, Ed Markey understands the looming climate crisis and what we must do right now to combat it,” said Evan Weber, co-founder and political director of the Sunrise Movement, in a written statement. “Rare in a politician, he’s used his experience and seniority to advance the movement, not used the movement to advance himself.”

Another Sunrise Movement official said Markey has a long record of standing for environmentalists’ goals against business interests and will help bring about climate-change policies that will help fix what he called “our broken economy.”

“Six years ago, Markey first earned my vote by standing with indigenous communities, farmers, and young people across North America as one of the first national politicians to oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline in his first run for United States Senate,” said Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of the Sunrise Movement, in a written statement. “Senator Markey knows that to achieve the unprecedented scale of transformation that the Green New Deal calls for and the climate crisis requires, we will need an unprecedented coalition of workers, young people, and communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis and our broken economy – and that the policies must be designed with those communities at the tables shaping them.”

Markey has been trying to accentuate his left-wing credentials to bolster his campaign for a second term in the U.S. Senate. Markey last week accepted the endorsement of NARAL Pro-Choice America, a pro-abortion group.

Markey (D-Malden) has three challengers in the September 2020 Democratic primary so far, but one other possible challenger would be a heavyweight contender.

Kennedy (D-Newton) has engineered his own draft-Kennedy movement, fueled in part by a head-to-head poll he quietly commissioned recently. He has not yet said whether he will challenge Markey for the Senate seat, although his spokesman has stopped predicting that Kennedy will run for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives.