Ed Markey
Edward John Markey (/ˈmɑːrki/ MAR-kee; born July 11, 1946) is an American lawyer, politician, and former Army reservist serving as the junior United States senator from Massachusetts since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served 20 terms (18 full, two partial) as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district from 1976 to 2013. Before his congressional career, he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1973 to 1976.
For the U.S. senator, see Jeff Merkley.
Ed Markey
Office established
Office abolished
7th district (1976–2013)
5th district (2013)
Richard McGrath
Edward Dickson
John C. McNeil
Boston College (BA, JD)
United States
1968–1973
In 2013, after John Kerry was appointed United States Secretary of State, Markey was elected to serve out the remainder of Kerry's Senate term in a 2013 special election. Markey defeated Stephen Lynch in the Democratic primary and Republican Gabriel E. Gomez in the general election. He was elected to a full term in the Senate in 2014. Markey fended off a primary challenge from Joseph Kennedy III and was reelected in 2020 by a wide margin.
Markey is a progressive who has focused on climate change and energy policy and was chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming from 2007 to 2011. He is the Senate author of the Green New Deal.[1] Markey is the dean of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, having served in Congress since 1976. His progressive policies have led to widespread support among young voters.[2] The Hill has called him "an icon to Gen Z activists".[3]
Early life and education[edit]
Markey was born on July 11, 1946, in Malden, Massachusetts, the son of Christina M. (née Courtney) and John E. Markey, a milkman. Markey's mother was the valedictorian of her high school class but was unable to attend college because her mother died and she was needed to care for the family.[4][5][6] The family was Irish Catholic, and Markey was educated at Immaculate Conception School and Malden Catholic High School.
Starting in the summer of 1965, Markey was the driver and salesperson for an ice cream truck in Lexington, Massachusetts. He was known as "Eddie the Ice Cream Man" to neighborhood children and used the proceeds from the HP Hood route to pay tuition at Boston College. In the late 1960s Markey was cited by the Lexington Police for the ringing of his bell to announce the ice cream truck's presence. Soon after the citation, the selectmen of Lexington changed the ordinance and he was allowed to ring his bell.[7]
Markey graduated from Boston College in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts and from Boston College Law School in 1972 with a Juris Doctor.[8]
Political positions[edit]
Abortion[edit]
When he was first elected to Congress, Markey opposed abortion and supported a constitutional amendment to ban it. He described his opposition as a matter of conscience.[74] Starting in 1983, he began moving away from his opposition, voting against measures that blocked funding for abortion for federal employees unless their life was at risk. During his 1984 Senate campaign, Markey said that while he still personally opposed abortion, he believed that it should remain legal. Since then, he has opposed restrictions on abortion.[75][76] Markey wore a pin to the 2023 State of the Union Address with the word ABORTION with a heart in place of the central portion of the letter O.[77] He attended the event with Kate Dineen, an abortion rights advocate.[78]
Antitrust, competition and corporate regulation[edit]
In June 2019, Markey was one of six Democrats led by Amy Klobuchar who signed letters to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice recounting that many of them had "called on both the FTC and the Justice Department to investigate potential anticompetitive activity in these markets, particularly following the significant enforcement actions taken by foreign competition enforcers against these same companies" and requesting that each agency confirm whether it had opened antitrust investigations into each of the companies and pledge that it would publicly release any such investigation's findings.[79]
Child care[edit]
In 2019, Markey and 34 other senators introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act, a bill that they claim would create 770,000 new childcare jobs and ensure that families making less than 75% of the state median income would not pay for child care, with higher-earning families having to pay "their fair share for care on a sliding scale, regardless of the number of children they have." The legislation also supports universal access to high-quality preschool programs for all 3- and 4-year-olds and changes child care compensation and training.[80]
Children's programming[edit]
In 2019, after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced changes to the Children's Television Act of 1990, Markey and eight other Democratic senators signed a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that expressed concern that the proposed changes "would limit the reach of educational content available to children and have a particular damaging effect on youth in low-income and minority communities" and asserted that the new rules would decrease access to valuable educational content through over-the-air services.[81]
Recognition[edit]
Markey received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Tufts University in May 2019.[155]
Personal life[edit]
Since 1988, Markey has been married to Susan Blumenthal, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Women's Health and held the rank of rear admiral as Assistant U.S. Surgeon General.[156] From 2005 to 2017, he was a contributing writer for The Huffington Post.[157] He was one of several politicians who had a cameo role in the 2003 film Gods and Generals, in which he played an Irish Brigade officer.[158]