Markey builds leads in hotly contested Senate primary with Kennedy: polls

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New polling shows Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts opening up a lead over Democratic challenger Rep. Joe Kennedy III with less than a week to go until their Senate primary showdown in an increasingly bitter contest that’s grabbed national headlines.

According to a Suffolk University poll released on Wednesday, Markey leads Kennedy 51%-41% among likely Massachusetts Democratic primary voters. A survey released hours earlier by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion also indicated the senator with a small double-digit advantage over his challenger, who is the grandson of the late senator and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and grandnephew of the late President John F. Kennedy.

TOP HOUSE DEMOCRATS CLASH OVER MARKEY-KENNEDY ENDORSEMENTS

The Kennedy family name still holds magic for many Massachusetts Democrats — and for months, polls indicated a close contest.

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey speaks to delegates during the 2019 Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention, in Springfield, Mass. U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III will challenge Markey in the 2020 Democratic primary. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

The 74-year old Markey was first elected to Congress in 1976, four years before the 39-year-old Kennedy was born. Even though he’s 35 years senior to Kennedy, the Suffolk poll indicates Markey topping his challenger by 10 points among voters 35 and younger.

While Kennedy’s repeatedly urged voters to pick a “new” generation of progressive leadership, some of Markey’s support among younger voters may be thanks to the backing of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who stars in one of the senator’s TV commercials. The firebrand congresswoman from New York, the best known of the quartet of first-term progressive female House members of color known as "The Squad," last year endorsed Markey. The two lawmakers teamed up months earlier to produce and champion the landmark climate change proposal known as the Green New Deal.

Markey also has the backing of the state’s other senator, Elizabeth Warren, who’s another rock star of the progressive movement.

Kennedy recently landed the endorsement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, D-Mass., announces his candidacy for the Senate on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019, in Boston. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

While primary day is Tuesday, early voting by mail has been underway for weeks. Nearly half of those polled in the Suffolk University survey indicated they were voting by mail.

As the campaign hurled toward next week’s finish line, the acrimony on both sides is rising. Kennedy’s team in recent days called on Markey’s campaign to knock off online attacks directed at their candidate and his supporters, which included death threats.

The winner of the primary will be considered the heavy favorite in the general election in a state where Democrats have the upper hand in federal contests.