Labor attorney launches bid for US Senate

SHANNON LISS-RIORDAN, a labor attorney who has won concessions from some of the best known corporations, earning the sobriquet “The Sledgehammer,” announced a Democratic primary challenge against US Sen. Ed Markey on Monday.

“I think that my experience as a worker’s rights lawyer, as a woman, as a mother, as a political outsider gives me a perspective that I think is what we need in Congress now,” Liss-Riordan said in a phone interview. “We don’t have enough women in Congress. We need more women in the Senate.”

The challenge, which will be decided between now and September 2020, is more evidence of the recent political energy within the Democratic party, where the current field of legitimate presidential contenders exceeds 20.

Last year, a wave of Democratic candidates not only swept the party into control of the US House – though not the Senate – it also ushered in a record number of women to the chamber and ended the careers of some entrenched Democrats who were bested by primary opponents.

Read more: https://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/labor-attorney-launches-bid-for-us-senate/