On Tuesday night, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey fended off a challenge by Rep. Joe Kennedy III in a highly contested primary race that just one year ago had the incumbent senator trailing by double digits. In that time, the Markey campaign transformed the 74-year-old run-of-the-mill liberal senator into a progressive underdog fighting for the youth, the working class, and the planet, while Kennedy was framed as an establishment stooge relying on family legacy above all else (that endorsement from Nancy Pelosi didn’t help).
This isn’t to say that Markey’s accolades aren’t without merit: While his lengthy record in Congress isn’t spotless, it’s rather progressive, especially where matters of environmental welfare are concerned. Alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Markey co-sponsored the Green New Deal, a transformative piece of legislation that would address climate change and economic inequality through a set of ambitious reforms, public works projects, and a shift to renewable energy. And he unapologetically centered his support of this legislation and other left-of-center policies throughout the primary.
“Tonight is more than just a celebration of a movement,” Markey said during his victory speech Tuesday night. “It is a real reaffirmation of the need to have a movement, a progressive movement of young people demanding radical change, demanding justice.”
But before young people showed up at the polls, they showed up online, participating in a meme-heavy organizing strategy that internet and politically savvy Millennials and Zoomers gravitated towards.