Election 2020: Sen. Ed Markey endorsed by 100 former government officials, advocates, educators

An informal group of former senior federal and state government officials, educators and advocates for the environment, health care and consumers joined together Tuesday to endorse Sen. Ed Markey, who faces a primary challenge from U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III.

In a letter and accompanying document highlighting 49 legislative victories during Markey’s four decades in Congress, the group touted Markey’s experience, bipartisanship and leadership on progressive issues.

The group thanked Markey for his “lifetime of instrumental work in Massachusetts and in the U.S. Congress, writing laws and forcing issuance of regulations for social justice, public health, safe and affordable transportation, environmental sustainability, a fair marketplace, investor protection, public access to electronic communications, public access to the courts and personal privacy.”

In a statement, longtime Massachusetts resident Gina McCarthy, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator during the Obama Administration, said she knows “of no one who has worked harder or more successfully” to protect the country’s natural resources and health than Markey.

“It just doesn’t get any more strategic and dogged than Ed,” McCarthy added.

In a zoom conference Tuesday, former U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman cited the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” noting “Ed Markey was always in the room where it happens because he was the one making it happen, whether it was environmental legislation, or communications or things important for ordinary people.”

The group also applauded Markey’s push for Medicare for all and health care as an American right, and for working with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on the Green New Deal.

Joan Claybrook, a former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Markey would continue to “stand up to ravenous special interests” at a time when the country faced a pandemic.

“He knows how to create bipartisan support and to resist the pressures of private economic interest,” Claybrook said. “He doesn’t wait for an issue to become popular. He doesn’t discuss the need for change, he creates change.”

Markey and Kennedy will square off in debates on July 26 on NBC10 Boston and Aug. 11 on WBZ-TV.

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