End of a dynasty? Joe Kennedy defeated in US Senate bid

Congressman Joe Kennedy, long seen as a rising star, crashed to defeat Tuesday in his bid for a US Senate seat, the first time the storied American political dynasty lost a statewide election in Massachusetts. Incumbent Senator Ed Markey, a political veteran who recast himself as the fiery liberal in the race, harnessed the state’s progressive energy to handily turn back a challenge from Joseph Kennedy III, the grandnephew of assassinated president John F Kennedy.

The 39-year-old Kennedy said he “called Senator Markey to congratulate him and to pledge my support to him and his campaign in the months ahead.” With votes still being counted, Markey was leading 53.5 percent to 46.5 percent. “Obviously, these results are not the ones we were hoping for,” Kennedy said.

The race pitted two well-liked progressives against one another, but it was Markey’s organizational energy and appeal to the ascendant left that won out over Kennedy. Since he is not allowed to be on the ballot as a candidate for both the House and Senate, Kennedy is not running for re-election to his House seat. Come January, there will be no one from the Kennedy clan in elected office.The grandson of slain attorney general Robert F. Kennedy is part of the family’s fourth generation to carry the political torch, entering the House of Representatives in 2013.

For the Kennedy clan, there was much on the line. For all but two years since 1947 — nearly a third of the history of the United States — a Kennedy has served in elective office. They are the quintessential American dynasty, one of the closest things the country has to royalty. Like his presidential great-uncle, the lanky, red-haired Kennedy ran on the promise of a new generation.

And he had received the rare endorsement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who in 2018 appointed Kennedy to deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech. The Democratic National Convention last month hinted that the Kennedy clan may indeed have a political future, when it aired a video message from JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy and her 27-year-old son Jack Kennedy Schlossberg.

Source: DJ