All right, it's it's sort of feeling like
fall here in Massachusetts, which means that
in an election year, it's probably primary
day because Massachusetts will sometimes have
very, very late primaries.
And indeed, yesterday, September 1st, was
primary day here in Massachusetts.
And it was basically a good night for incumbents.
We followed a lot of these individual races,
which I'm going to go through with you, which
had prominent primary races in the Senate
in the House of Representatives.
We even interviewed one of the candidates
last week.
And overall, if you were hoping to see incumbents
upset, you did not see yesterday.
So let's go through some of these races first
and foremost.
We had incumbent Democratic Senator Ed Markey
defeat challenger Joe Kennedy, the third,
Joe Kennedy, the third, of course, a congressman
who is giving up his seat in the House.
We'll talk about who won the primary for that
House seat.
A little later.
But Ed Markey winning solidly 55 to 44 with
about one point two million votes cast.
But still, I mean, listen, all that matters
is who wins in the end.
But 44 percent for a challenger to an incumbent
Democratic senator in the state of Massachusetts,
particularly one who's relatively well-liked,
is not nothing.
So, you know, it's like that when you lose,
you've lost.
And saying Joe Kennedy can feel good, about
44 percent is kind of dumb, feels stupid to
say it.
But this is not 80-20, 55 to 44.
Ed Markey will retain his spot at the top
of the Democratic ticket and presumably will
be reelected in November.
I did vote for Markey.
I received questions about this a number of
times during live calls.
And for me, what would it fundamentally came
down to?
Was the case being made for why Kennedy should
replace Markey was not a solid one for me.
There was the idea that Kennedy is more progressive.
And when I looked at the issues, particularly
on climate and in other places, I just didn't
see it.
And to say, let's remove someone who now has
built some seniority in the Senate for someone
else, basically for what feels like the argument
that he's younger.
Joe Kennedy, 39 years old, and Markey in his
70s, it felt like a weak case.
And so I ultimately did vote for Ed Markey.
And that's not a secret.
I mentioned that on the program a number of
times before in my sort of former congressional
district, because I don't live in that area
anymore.
But also, the lines have been redrawn.
In any case, my former congressman, Richard
Neal, the incumbent facing a solid primary
challenge from Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, Holyoke,
Massachusetts Mayor Alex Morse.
I met Alex Morse more than a decade ago.
We interviewed him on the program when he
was running for and had won the mayorship
of Holyoke, Massachusetts.
He was also on the program last week.
He did not prevail.
Ultimately, the incumbent, Richard Neal, won
it.
It wasn't super close, 59 to 41.
Again, you can say great job by Alex getting
41 percent of the vote, but it was not really
close.
There was polling going into this one that
said it was within five points and the margin
of error was a few points there.
So you could argue that there was polling
saying that this was effectively a statistical
tie, maybe, but in the end, 59 to 41 there.
And Richard Neal will certainly be reelected
in November.
Then we had a three-Way race for Joe Kennedy's
vacated seat.
So this is the Democratic primary for who
will be on the ballot in November for Joe
Kennedy seat, which he is vacating in order
to run against that.
Markey losing yesterday, of course.
And they're an incredibly close race.
Jesse Marmol just barely defeating Jake Oshin,
Sheila Oshin Closs, twenty two point four
to twenty two point three now.
That was only one hundred and five vote margin,
incredibly, with Becky Grossman in third place
with about 17 and a half percent of the vote.
And then we had incumbent Steven Lynch.
One of the more, I think it's fair to say,
centrist Democrats in the House defeating
challenger Robby Goldstein, that one even
less close than the Alex Morse Richard Neal
race.
Lynch winning 66 to 34, which is very close
to a two to one margin.
So that one was not close, although Goldstein
did generate some level of interest and enthusiasm
in the district and not Massachusetts.
Now, one other primary of interest yesterday
there.
There's this wacky conspiracy theorist who
is running for the Republican primary for.
The Senate.
So this would be with Republican will be on
the ballot in November against Ed Markey.
And this doc I had, Durai is a doctor who
falsely claimed to have invented e-mail, spread
disinformation about Corona virus, promoted
unfounded Cauvin treatments.
I mean, really like a wacky.
I don't want to say Alex Jones like but certainly
shades of Alex Jones.
Dr Shiva lost the Republican primary to Kevin
O'Connor, 60 to 39.
So O'Connor will be on the ticket against
Markey in November.
Now, to give you a sense of the lopsided nature
of Massachusetts, even though Republican presidential
candidates get in the high 30s to low 40s.
Right.
So it's lopsided, but you still have a sizable
Republican population in Massachusetts.
There were only two hundred and twenty five
thousand votes cast in the Republican Senate
primary, compared to one more than one point
two million votes in the Democratic Senate
primary.
And by every indication, Ed Markey will easily
defeat Kevin O'Connor in November.
But you've got to vote.
You've got to vote.
There's a reason we don't go by polls and
we actually hold the elections near near my
dad's house.
For the last several months, I've been driving
by a house with a sign that says Dr Shiva
and I always cringe when I drive past it.
I'm hoping it's going to be taken down very,
very soon.
But overall, some of the latest primaries
leaning in the direction of the Democratic
incumbents, some more progressive, some less
progressive.
And we now know who will be on the ballot
in November of Joe Biden leading overwhelmingly
here in Massachusetts.
Some polls say it's a lead in the 20s, high
20s.
Some leads, some polls say it's a lead in
the 30s for Joe Biden.
But we've got to run up the score.
Every Massachusetts voter should vote.
We must run up the score.
And in fact, that's sort of what I want to
talk about next.
