Edward J. Markey

Ed Markey grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood in Malden, Massachusetts, the son of a union leader. After graduating from Malden Catholic High School, he attended Boston College as a commuter student (paying his way by driving an ice cream truck) and later Boston College Law School. He ran for the Massachusetts House of Representatives in his third year of law school and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976. After his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, he founded the Congressional Alzheimer's Task Force and authored the National Alzheimer's Project Act. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 2013 special election, and in 2019 he introduced the Green New Deal with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He and his wife, Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal, MD, MPA, have been married 39 years and reside in the Malden house where Ed grew up.