The crowd at the Boston Park Plaza hotel erupted into applause as Ed Markey took the stage to declare victory in a special election for the U.S. Senate seat long held by John Kerry on Tuesday night.
Longtime Democratic U.S. Representative Ed Markey defeated Republican political newcomer Gabriel Gomez. The vote was 55 to 45 percent.
“I am going to the US Senate to build a bold and bright future filled with optimism and opportunity for every family in the state of Massachusetts and across our great country,” Markey said in his victory speech.
Markey ticked off a list of legislative priorities, including more gun control regulation, ensuring an affordable college education and protecting women’s reproductive rights. He also touched several times on the enrironment.
Markey’s victory wasn’t much of a surprise. He held a solid lead in the polls since the beginning of the race and he had a formidable democratic field operation behind him. Massachusetts Democratic Party
Chairman John Walsh said the Democratic get out the vote machine kicked into high gear to turn out the vote for Markey.
“As Democrats, we did not take this election for granted,” Walsh said. “We weren’t asleep at the switch like we were for Scott Brown --- we’ve been working at this for months.”
Walsh said in the past three to four days, the campaign had 15,000 volunteers and reached out to 3 million voters. Republicans in Massachusetts have had a hard time replicating that kind of grassroots structure.
Markey will fill out the remainder of John Kerry’s term, which expires in January 2015.
