For the first time in 20 Massachusetts statewide elections over many years, a member of the Kennedy family was defeated recently in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate.

Incumbent Sen. Edward Markey, 74, beat Rep. Joe Kennedy, 39, namesake of a former congressman and a grandson of the late attorney general Robert F. Kennedy.

The Kennedy magic that had dominated his state, elected one president and had two other presidential candidates in Bob and Ted Kennedy, didn’t work against Markey, a hard-working liberal and an advocate of the so-called Green New Deal to mitigate climate change. The latest Joe Kennedy came across to many voters as an impatient invoker of his political heritage, despite his own strong liberal record.

He took the defeat graciously, saying use of his family name had been “invoked more than I anticipated,” and saying of Markey: “The senator is a good man. You have never heard me say otherwise. It was difficult at times between us. Good elections often get heated.” He said he was grateful for the debates with Markey, “for his commitment to our commonwealth, and for the energy and enthusiasm he brought to his race.”

An apparent key to Markey’s victory was public resentment toward a sense of entitlement in Kennedy’s challenge to a fellow liberal. Markey said in a video about Kennedy’s campaign, “With all due respect, it’s time to start asking what your country can do for you,” a play on JFK’s famous inauguration exhortation.

Markey was elected to the Senate in 2013, in a special election to replace John Kerry when he became Secretary of State in the Barack Obama administration. In 2014, he was elected to a full term. This year he had heavy support from a Sunrise Movement of young Americans including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. He will face Republican Kevin O’Connor in November, and is heavily favored to retain his seat.

The Kennedys over the years had seemed invincible in the Bay State, within the family as well as in the party in which deference was given to senior members. In 1984, when Sargent Shriver, husband of Eunice Kennedy, was considering a presidential candidacy after Ted Kennedy said he would not run, Shriver went to him and so informed him.

The Washington Star reported the courtesy, and out of curiosity I called on Ted Kennedy in his Senate office, asking him how had responded. He said: “I wished him well.” Kidding him, I then asked him: “If Benito Mussolini told you he was running for president, would you wish him well?” Grinning, he replied: “If he was married to my sister!”

On another occasion, the Kennedy family was eyeing the job of Massachusetts state treasurer as a political steppingstone for a young member of the clan. It was then held by a family retainer, Bobby Crane, who was not interested in cooperating. I happened to be in Boston enrolling my daughter Julie at Harvard, so I called on him at his Beacon Hill office to ask him about it.

Before I could do so, Crane reached into his desk drawer, saying he knew why I was there. He handed me two tickets to Fenway Park, where the Red Sox would be playing the Yankees that afternoon in a critical playoff to qualify for the World Series. He said he had no intention of stepping aside for a Kennedy, adding he hoped we would enjoy the game, which the Red Sox lost, to the chagrin of the faithful in attendance, including Ted Kennedy.

Now the younger Joe Kennedy, not yet age 40, will have ample time to rebound for another try should he so choose, though there has been no expectation that the other Massachusetts senator, Elizabeth Warren, will soon retire. At age 71, she has endorsed the Joe Biden presidential candidacy and would be a strong voice in the Senate for issues they share, should he elected in November.

The Kennedy name will always be in the forefront of any discussion of politics and influence in Massachusetts, still the mecca of culture and history going back to the Boston Tea Party and Bunker Hill. But it no longer is a free ticket to political power as it was in what can now be called the Kennedy era.

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