Ex-Navy SEAL runs for Senate: Former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez, a political newcomer, will run against 36-year Capitol Hill veteran Rep. Edward Markey for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry.
Gomez and Markey won their primaries on Tuesday. In his speech, Gomez capitalized on his rookie status in politics, saying “If you’re looking for an experienced, slick talking politician, I’m definitely not your guy,” according to a transcript on his website.
He noted that in 1976 when Markey was first elected to Congress: “Gerald Ford was president. The Internet did not yet exist.
8 track players were big. Boston’s first album had just come out. The first Rocky movie debuted in theaters. The median price of new homes was 44 thousand dollars. Our national debt, which today is over 16 Trillion, was not even 1 Trillion. Al Gore had not yet invented the internet.”
“It was a lifetime ago,” he said.
In an endorsement article for Markey published the day before the primaries, the Boston Globe lists some of Markey’s accomplishments during his lengthy career. The Globe praises him for working toward greater security in airline cargo screening following 9/11, fostering the growth of telecommunications in the country, and promoting climate change legislation.
While Markey, a Democrat, criticized Gomez’s Republican supporters as being ready to “move mountains of money to buy this election for big oil, and the NRA [National Rifle Association], and those who want to turn back the clock on women’s rights,” Gomez called himself, “A completely new kind of Republican.”
Gomez’s parents moved to the United States from Columbia, and Gomez said he did not know English until he went to school. He outlined some of his accomplishments: He was a Navy pilot, a Navy SEAL, and also a successful businessman after graduating from Harvard Business School.
Gomez lives in Cohasset, a town in Norfolk County, Mass. Markey is from Malden, Mass. Voters will choose between the two in a special election scheduled for June 25.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
