Rep Markey Wins Special Election for Massachusetts Senate Seat

Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a Democrat who has toiled for almost 40 years in the House in both the majority and minority, won a promotion to the Senate in a victory over Gabriel Gomez, a Republican who has never served in elective office.

With almost all precincts reporting, Rep Markey had won 55 percent of the vote to Gomez’s 45 percent. Markey’s win came as a surprise to no one. Every poll in the state showed him leading Gomez, though by varying margins, since the primaries ended two months ago. Markey’s biggest advantage was that his views were in line with those of most voters in deep blue Massachusetts. With a much bigger war chest, which he used to flood the airwaves with ads, he campaigned consistently on his support for abortion rights and a ban on assault weapons and reminded voters constantly that Gomez opposed both. Rep Markey, 66, succeeds John Kerry, who stepped down this year to become secretary of state, and he will provide a reliable vote for President Obama’s agenda, which seemed to be just what voters wanted.