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Friday Video: Sen. Ed Markey Says Democrats ‘Have to Fight Harder’

StreetsblogMASS rode the bus from Malden to Chelsea with Sen. Ed Markey to talk federal transportation policy and this fall's elections.
Friday Video: Sen. Ed Markey Says Democrats ‘Have to Fight Harder’
Well if it isn't Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is no stranger to how Washington works, having served in Congress since the mid-1970s. But in a interview-on-a-bus earlier this week with StreetsblogMASS, Markey acknowledged that he and his colleagues on Capitol Hill need to do things differently.

“Democrats have to try. They have to work hard. They have to fight harder. It’s a transition that we have to make. It doesn’t happen by accident. You have to have people who are worried to put themselves on the line,” Markey told StreetsblogMASS Editor Christian MilNeil and reporter Meghan Volcy. “Because that’s what the communities want. They don’t want more highways. They want more affordable public transportation, safer roads, safer ways in which they can be riding their bikes.”

But Markey has given up on getting any of those priorities through a Republican-led Congress. The senator, who faces a challenge from U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton in next Tuesday’s Massachusetts primary, discussed that, his push for more non-highway transportation funding and more.

Watch below, or check out an edited transcript here.

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