Ted Kennedy’s widow invokes her late husband in Hillary Clinton endorsement
Citing health care reform as a primary reason, Victoria Reggie Kennedy said she is supporting Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In an editorial published Thursday in The Republican, Kennedy, the widow of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, said her husband thought Clinton’s health care reform efforts while Bill Clinton was president were “thrilling, perhaps even revolutionary.’’
“Teddy told me how much he admired Hillary’s tenacity and willingness to tackle such a difficult but necessary issue in the face of such strong political opposition to change,’’ Kennedy wrote.
Her husband made waves in Massachusetts nearly eight years ago, when the late senator endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination in late March 2008. Though Clinton won the Bay State’s primary earlier that winter, Obama would of course go on to take the party’s nomination.
Though the Massachusetts senator died before his hallmark issue, comprehensive health care reform, became reality, his wife remembered its passage fondly.
“I was proud to stand at President Obama’s side as he signed the Affordable Care Act into law,’’ Kennedy wrote. “Because of the hard work of so many, including Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy, nearly 20 million more people are now insured.’’
This cycle, Clinton has worked to make the Affordable Care Act a focal point of the Democratic primary.
Two weeks before Massachusett’s 2016 primary, a poll showed another Democratic insurgent, this time Bernie Sanders, leading Clinton in the state by seven percentage points.
Kennedy wrote Thursday that though her husband, like Sanders, supported single-payer health care, he “aggressively pursued other avenues for health reform,’’ rather than “search for the impossible.’’
“We don’t need to open up old wounds to refight health care reform,’’ Kennedy wrote. “It’s time to move forward. We need a 45th President who will continue to fight for the Affordable Care Act and make it even better.’’
Read her full endorsement over at MassLive.com.
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