Edward Kennedy

Edward Kennedy

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Democratic Party

Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Tenure

2019 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

6

Compensation

Base salary

$73,655.01/year

Per diem

$No per diem is paid.

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2024

Contact

Official website

Official Facebook

Campaign Facebook

Personal website

Personal Facebook

Personal Twitter

Edward Kennedy (Democratic Party) is a member of the Massachusetts State Senate, representing the 1st Middlesex District. He assumed office on January 2, 2019. His current term ends on January 6, 2027.

Kennedy (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the Massachusetts State Senate to represent the 1st Middlesex District. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Committee assignments

Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.

2023-2024

Kennedy was assigned to the following committees:

• Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets, Chair
• Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Joint Committee
• Elder Affairs Joint Committee (decommissioned)
• Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Joint Committee
• Higher Education Joint Committee
• Municipalities and Regional Government Joint Committee, Vice Chair
• Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development Joint Committee

2021-2022

Kennedy was assigned to the following committees:

• Community Development and Small Businesses Joint Committee, Senate vice chair
• Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Joint Committee
• Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Joint Committee
• Financial Services Joint Committee
• Higher Education Joint Committee
• Municipalities and Regional Government Joint Committee
• Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development Joint Committee, Senate chair

2019-2020

Kennedy was assigned to the following committees:

• Election Laws Joint Committee
• Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Joint Committee
• Elder Affairs Joint Committee (decommissioned)
• Community Development and Small Businesses Joint Committee, Vice Chair
• Higher Education Joint Committee
• Municipalities and Regional Government Joint Committee
• Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development Joint Committee, Chair

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Elections

2024

See also: Massachusetts State Senate elections, 2024

General election

General election for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Incumbent Edward Kennedy defeated Karla Miller in the general election for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Edward Kennedy (D)	63.4	40,887
	Submit photo	Karla Miller (R)	36.3	23,422
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	147

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 64,456
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Incumbent Edward Kennedy advanced from the Democratic primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on September 3, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Edward Kennedy	98.8	10,222
		Other/Write-in votes	1.2	124

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,346
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Karla Miller advanced from the Republican primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on September 3, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Karla Miller	99.0	3,827
		Other/Write-in votes	1.0	38

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 3,865
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Kennedy in this election.

2022

See also: Massachusetts State Senate elections, 2022

General election

General election for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Incumbent Edward Kennedy won election in the general election for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Edward Kennedy (D)	97.4	32,003
		Other/Write-in votes	2.6	847

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 32,850
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Incumbent Edward Kennedy advanced from the Democratic primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on September 6, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Edward Kennedy	100.0	10,538
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	3

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,541
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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2020

See also: Massachusetts State Senate elections, 2020

General election

General election for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Incumbent Edward Kennedy won election in the general election for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Edward Kennedy (D)	98.8	56,791
		Other/Write-in votes	1.2	706

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 57,497
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Incumbent Edward Kennedy advanced from the Democratic primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on September 1, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Edward Kennedy	99.2	21,890
		Other/Write-in votes	0.8	177

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 22,067
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2018

General election

General election for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Edward Kennedy defeated John MacDonald in the general election for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Edward Kennedy (D)	63.9	35,068
		John MacDonald (R)	36.1	19,825
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	15

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 54,908
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

Edward Kennedy defeated John Drinkwater, Rodney Elliott, Terry Ryan, and William Martin Jr. in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on September 4, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Edward Kennedy	26.6	4,679
	Submit photo	John Drinkwater	23.9	4,212
		Rodney Elliott	20.2	3,557
	Submit photo	Terry Ryan	16.1	2,841
	Submit photo	William Martin Jr.	13.1	2,312

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 17,601
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

John MacDonald advanced from the Republican primary for Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District on September 4, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John MacDonald	100.0	4,778

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 4,778
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Edward Kennedy did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Edward Kennedy did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Edward Kennedy did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Edward Kennedy campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District	Won general	$33,649	$0
2022	Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District	Won general	$66,066	$0
2020	Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District	Won general	$27,400	N/A**
Grand total			$127,115	N/A**
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Massachusetts

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Massachusetts scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.

2024

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show].

In 2024, the Massachusetts State Legislature was in session from January 3 to December 31. Formal session ended on July 31, 2024 and an informal session was convened from August 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Legislators are scored on bills of interest to an organization that pledges "to make government more transparent, make fiscally responsible choices, and to hold the line on taxes." Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Legislators are scored on their sponsorship of legislation related to animal issues. National Federation of Independent Business Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues. Progressive Massachusetts Legislators are scored by the organization on votes that "can show the distinction between a progressive legislator, and everyone else."

2023

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show].
In 2023, the Massachusetts State Legislature was in session from January 4 to November 15. Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Legislators are scored on bills of interest to an organization that pledges "to make government more transparent, make fiscally responsible choices, and to hold the line on taxes." The American Conservative Union Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

2022

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show].

In 2022, the Massachusetts State Legislature was in session from January 5 to August 1. Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Legislators are scored on bills of interest to an organization that pledges "to make government more transparent, make fiscally responsible choices, and to hold the line on taxes." Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Legislators are scored on their sponsorship of legislation related to animal issues. Progressive Massachusetts Legislators are scored by the organization on votes that "can show the distinction between a progressive legislator, and everyone else." National Federation of Independent Business Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.

2021

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show].

In 2021, the Massachusetts State Legislature was in session from January 6 to January 4. Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Legislators are scored on bills of interest to an organization that pledges "to make government more transparent, make fiscally responsible choices, and to hold the line on taxes." Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Legislators are scored on their sponsorship of legislation related to animal issues. Progressive Massachusetts Legislators are scored by the organization on votes that "can show the distinction between a progressive legislator, and everyone else." The American Conservative Union Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

2020

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show].

In 2020, the Massachusetts State Legislature was in session from January 1 to January 5. Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Legislators are scored on bills of interest to an organization that pledges "to make government more transparent, make fiscally responsible choices, and to hold the line on taxes." Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group Legislators are scored on their votes on public interest issues. Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Legislators are scored on their sponsorship of legislation related to animal issues. National Federation of Independent Business Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues. Progressive Massachusetts Legislators are scored by the organization on votes that "can show the distinction between a progressive legislator, and everyone else." The American Conservative Union Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

2019

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show].

In 2019, the Massachusetts General Court was in session from January 2 through December 31. Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Legislators are scored on bills of interest to an organization that pledges "to make government more transparent, make fiscally responsible choices, and to hold the line on taxes." Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Legislators are scored on their sponsorship of legislation related to animal issues. Progressive Massachusetts Legislators are scored by the organization on votes that "can show the distinction between a progressive legislator, and everyone else." The American Conservative Union Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

2018

To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show].

In 2018, the Massachusetts General Court was in formal session from January 3 to July 31. The legislature was in informal session from August 1 to December 31. Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Legislators are scored on bills of interest to an organization that pledges "to make government more transparent, make fiscally responsible choices, and to hold the line on taxes." Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Legislators are scored on their sponsorship of legislation related to animal issues. Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to reproductive health issues. Progressive Massachusetts Legislators are scored by the organization on votes that "can show the distinction between a progressive legislator, and everyone else." The American Conservative Union Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.

See also

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Candidate

Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

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Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District

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Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by -	Massachusetts State Senate 1st Middlesex District 2019-Present	Succeeded by -

[show]

Current members of the Massachusetts State Senate

Senators

Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Hampshire District

Paul Mark (D)

Bristol and Norfolk District

Paul Feeney (D)

Cape and Islands District

Julian Cyr (D)

Hampden District

Adam Gomez (D)

Hampden and Hampshire District

John Velis (D)

Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester District

Jacob Oliveira (D)

Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester District

Jo Comerford (D)

Middlesex and Norfolk District

Karen Spilka (D)

Middlesex and Suffolk District

Sal DiDomenico (D)

Middlesex and Worcester District

James Eldridge (D)

Norfolk and Middlesex District

Cynthia Creem (D)

Norfolk and Plymouth District

John Keenan (D)

Norfolk and Suffolk District

Michael Rush (D)

Norfolk, Plymouth, and Bristol District

William Driscoll (D)

Norfolk, Worcester, and Middlesex District

Becca Rausch (D)

Plymouth and Barnstable District

Dylan Fernandes (D)

Suffolk and Middlesex District

William Brownsberger (D)

Worcester and Hampden District

Ryan Fattman (R)

Worcester and Hampshire District

Peter Durant (R)

Worcester and Middlesex District

John Cronin (D)

1st Bristol and Plymouth District

Michael Rodrigues (D)

1st Essex District

Pavel Payano (D)

1st Essex and Middlesex District

Bruce Tarr (R)

1st Middlesex District

Edward Kennedy (D)

1st Plymouth and Norfolk District

Patrick O'Connor (R)

1st Suffolk District

Nick Collins (D)

1st Worcester District

Robyn Kennedy (D)

2nd Bristol and Plymouth District

Mark Montigny (D)

2nd Essex District

Joan Lovely (D)

2nd Essex and Middlesex District

Barry Finegold (D)

2nd Middlesex District

Patricia Jehlen (D)

2nd Plymouth and Norfolk District

Michael Brady (D)

2nd Suffolk District

Liz Miranda (D)

2nd Worcester District

Michael Moore (D)

3rd Bristol and Plymouth District

Kelly Dooner (R)

3rd Essex District

Brendan Crighton (D)

3rd Middlesex District

Mike Barrett (D)

3rd Suffolk District

Lydia Edwards (D)

4th Middlesex District

Cindy Friedman (D)

5th Middlesex District

Jason Lewis (D)

Democratic Party (35)

Republican Party (5)