Listen: Kevin's interview with WAMC

Kevin O’Connor is the Republican challenging Democratic U.S. Senator Ed Markey’s reelection bid in November’s general election. The lawyer and father of four says the Markey, who defeated Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the September primary, is an extremist in his own party. O’Connor describes himself as a common sense candidate opposed to career politicians. WAMC spoke with O’Connor after the only debate of the campaign Monday, to discuss O’Connor’s support of President Trump, his defense of privatized healthcare and how he plans to win over voters in a staunchly blue state.

O’CONNOR: Well it’s staunchly democratic state in some respects. Five of our last six governors have been Republicans, and no one has ever won statewide as a Democrat running the way senator Markey is, wrapped in that AOC, Bernie Sanders, extreme left wing of the Democratic Party flag. I mean, that’s- No one’s ever won that way. So, Senator Markey, in the course of this campaign has gone so far as to mock JFK. He actually ran an ad in which he said he was tired of people asking, not what their country could do for them, but what they could do for their country. And he thought it was time we all just started asking, it’s time for us to ask what our country can do for us. So during a primary against Joe Kennedy, Ed Markey was mocking Joe Kennedy’s grand-uncle who’s a great hero in Massachusetts and for almost all Americans. It was it was so inappropriate, but even beyond that, more importantly, Senator Markey is repudiating just common sense American values. And that’s not what the people in Massachusetts want. So you take this, this is a year where we’re things are changing. There’s been so many changes. No Democrat has ever run the way Ed Markey is running. And I think most people in Massachusetts have common sense. They don’t want our police defunded or disarmed. They don’t want to pack the Supreme Court. They don’t want to abolish ICE.

WAMC: Let’s start digging into these issues. One of the signature pieces of legislation for Senator Markey is the Green New Deal. What is your stance on that piece of legislation and climate change as an issue at large?

Listen to the full interview