Ed Markey defeats Joe Kennedy in Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary
02 September 2020
Sen. Ed Markey won the Massachusetts Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday evening,fending off a bitter challenge from Rep. Joe Kennedy, AP reports.
Why it matters: The power of the Kennedy name in Massachusetts wasn't enough to overcome the incumbency advantage and progressive credentials of Markey, the co-author of the Green New Deal.
Background: The race captured a unique generational dynamic between the Democratic Party's progressive and establishment wings.
- 74-year-old Markey was backed by progressive champions like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), while the 39-year-old Kennedy earned endorsements from party leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
- Pelosi served with Markey in the House for 25 years, before he was elected to the Senate in 2013 during a special election to replace former Sen. John Kerry, who had been nominated as Secretary of State.
- Kennedy, the grandson of former Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and grand-nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, was elected to the House in 2012. He is the first Kennedy to lose a statewide race in Massachusetts.
The big picture: Even though Markey is an incumbent, his win is considered a big one for the progressive movement, which has seen mixed results this election cycle.
- Progressive Jamaal Bowman defeated 16-term incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel in NY-16's Democratic primary in June.
- Establishment favorite Amy McGrath defeated progressive state Rep. Charles Booker in Kentucky's Democratic U.S. Senate primary the same month.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.