MA-SEN Megathread: Senator Markey wins

[Roll Roons]

Who wants to tell Kennedy that there's no such place as Worchester, MA?

https://twitter.com/JohnEWalsh14/status/1300089011499929600

Noted Yankees fan Curt Schilling is from there!

[Roll Roons]

It's always worth asking after the New York debacle: will we know the winners tonight?

[Roll Roons]

Any MA experts have an indication of which way the race likely goes at this (early) point?

Too early to say. Neither candidate is running away with it.

If Kennedy loses, I wonder what that means for his future career. On one hand, it's impressive to run against an incumbent and come close to beating them. But it seems he's alienated many progressives by primarying Markey, and he'd come out of this looking pretty bad. I can't imagine him not running for higher office again in the near future.

It doesn't help that he had no coherent, justifiable reason for running beyond "I'm a Kennedy and I'm bored in the job I have now." If Markey had done something to seriously alienate Democrats or engaged in corrupt behavior, that would have been another thing.

Even the age argument (Markey's 74) rings hollow when you consider he's really not "old" by the standards of the modern Senate. Compare to say, when Barry Goldwater nearly lost in 1980 in part because his opponent argued he was too old to keep up with the job (he was 71 at the time).

The saddest example I know: 1982, when Millicent Fenwick (72) ran for Senate in New Jersey as a liberal Republican and lost in part because she was attacked as too old by her opponent - one Frank Lautenberg, who was a Senator until he died in office at 89!

[Roll Roons]

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1300962808801132547

Uhhhh...

[Roll Roons]

I wonder how Kennedy would have fared if he had tried to primary Warren instead

Probably worse.

[Roll Roons]

Meanwhile, Kevin O'Connor is beating Shiva Ayyadurai.

Is there any ethnic Republican who has managed to win a primary this year over a white candidate? Even the ones who had all the money and support lost (ex. Hawatmeh in NY).

Byron Donalds and Wes Hunt. Also my impression is that Shiva is kind of a lunatic, while O'Connor's politics are closer to Baker's.

[Roll Roons]

Meanwhile, Kevin O'Connor is beating Shiva Ayyadurai.

Is there any ethnic Republican who has managed to win a primary this year over a white candidate? Even the ones who had all the money and support lost (ex. Hawatmeh in NY).

Maybe the ones with European sounding names.

That's what I mean: it's basically become impossible to win a GOP primary with a non-"white" sounding name. (As in South Asian/African/Middle Eastern, not Irish/Italian/Polish.)

One exception: Mike Garcia beating Steve Knight. Also in the NJ Senate primary, where Mehta and Singh combined to get nearly 75%, with Tricia Flanagan getting only 18%, although that one's a weird case with county lines.

[Roll Roons]

Kennedy's loss, as noted above, means he is the first member of that family to ever lose an election in Massachusetts. And another thing-once his House term ends on January 3, 2021, it will be the first time in 74 years that no direct descendant of Joseph Kennedy Sr. will hold elected office anywhere in the United States. This doesn't count Amy Kennedy, Van Drew's opponent in New Jersey, who married into the family. Hopefully, the Kennedy dynasty will now find its way into the history books, like the Roosevelts and Tafts have.

Who did between Patrick's retirement in 2010 and Joe's election to Congress in 2012?