Republican Kevin O’Connor for U.S. Senate
The race for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts features two political polar opposites.
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey, 74, a perennial fixture on Capitol Hill, has been a professional politician for more than 40 years – virtually the Malden native’s entire work resume’.
His opponent in the Nov. 3 election, Republican Kevin O’Connor, has forged a completely different career path. A well-known lawyer in Boston legal circles, this campaign is the 58-year-old Dover resident’s first foray into politics.
If nothing else, Markey’s a survivor, successfully bending to the whim of current political winds. Recently, this 44-year veteran of Congress aligned himself with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and her “squad” of radical left first-term U.S. House members, jumping on the massive economy-killing environmental bandwagon known as the Green New Deal.
That calculated maneuver won over the state’s progressives and helped him overcome an early deficit in his eventual Democratic U.S. Senate primary victory over Congressman Joe Kennedy III.
On the Republican side, O’Connor — a graduate of Boston College Law School and a leader in the state’s legal community for three decades — easily defeated his enigmatic primary opponent, Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai.