Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey up 10 points on Joe Kennedy in Senate primary: Poll

Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III will likely be booted from Congress at the end of his term with Sen. Ed Markey in a comfortable position ahead of their Senate primary next week, according to a new poll.

Markey is about 10 percentage points ahead of Kennedy, 51% to 41%, a Suffolk University survey released Wednesday found. Another 8% of respondents told researchers they were still undecided.

Suffolk University’s results reflect another poll fielded this month by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and WCVB. That study found Markey with a 15-point lead on his younger challenger.

Kennedy, a six-year congressman representing swaths of Massachusetts south of Boston, decided against seeking a fourth term in the House to vie for a place in the Senate. His great-uncles, former President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy, held the seat currently occupied by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren for more than half a century.

Since launching his bid last year, Kennedy, 38, has made a generational change argument against Markey, 74. But despite Markey being a first-term senator who served 37 years in the House before that, his liberal record attracted endorsements from the likes of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bucked the trend and put her political weight behind Kennedy.

The primary has turned personal in recent weeks, with Markey criticizing Kennedy over the perception he feels entitled to a Senate seat given his family’s long association with the chamber. Kennedy hotly replied, “I am proud of their contribution and their history, but I recognize that that work is theirs.”

“It is not mine because that is what my family taught me about legacy: A legacy is earned,” he added.

Massachusetts Democrats vote next Tuesday. The other contentious race on the ballot is the contest between House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, a 31-year Capitol Hill veteran, and Holyoke, Massachusetts, Mayor Alex Morse in the state’s 1st Congressional District. Ocasio-Cortez this week backed Morse’s campaign over her colleague’s.

“When AOC took on an entrenched incumbent, she changed the Democratic Party for the better. It would be an honor to serve alongside her in Congress to fight for progressive change that benefits working families,” Morse tweeted in response.

The Suffolk University poll surveyed 500 likely Massachusetts voters from Aug. 23-25 via live interviews over landlines and cellphones. Its findings have a margin of error of 4.4 points.