HYANNIS – Congressman Joe Kennedy III has suspended his U.S. Senate bid campaign activities due to the coronavirus pandemic and is instead focusing on digital presence and public health.
“It’s definitely not time for panic. It is time for concern, time to take care of yourselves, take care of your families, listen to public health experts,” said Kennedy.
“If we do that, we’re going to be far better as we weather this crisis than if we panic.”
Kennedy said that suspending his campaign at this time was the appropriate and responsible thing to do at this time.
“We’ve been running a very aggressive and energetic campaign across the entire state. We’ve held hundreds of campaign events over the course of the past couple of months,” said Kennedy.
“At a time when people need to be rightfully focused on themselves, keeping themselves healthy and their families healthy, making sure this virus doesn’t spread, you can’t ask people to go out there and engage in groups to help build upon and advance the momentum we were generating this campaign.”
Kennedy said that he would be reevaluating the suspension in the coming days as the pandemic unfolds.
Kennedy said that slowing and dealing with the spread of the virus is the number one priority at this time and that his campaign will adjust accordingly. Any activities they continue will be to inform and update people on updates involving the virus digitally.
“We’re doing a lot of stuff virtually on our Facebook page where we’re hosting virtual town halls and answering a whole lot of questions. We’ll have a whole bunch of other stuff up there about what to do and how to deal with this crisis.”
Kennedy said that they will be providing more information when available on their campaign and official outlets.
He also said he was dissatisfied with the response from the administration, saying that the pandemic could have been better controlled if experts and staff were not removed prior to the outbreak to save on expenses.
“I don’t think this administration has addressed this crisis with nearly the urgency or professionalism that it demands. That lack of willingness to act aggressively and early has led to an issue where we are way behind the eight ball in terms of trying to keep up with the spread of corona,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy said that obligations to deal with the virus outbreak has filtered down to individual states, cities, and municipalities who have been operating without the confidence in the federal government to help provide backing to people forced to take time off and who might not receive pay.
“Parents who need to take time off from work who might not have paid leave, restaurants owners who need to make ends meet over the next couple weeks to say nothing of payroll, the cooks, the waiters, the waitress who make that restaurant run, how will they make ends meet?” said Kennedy.
Kennedy also said that it will be important for the government to be there for small business owners on Cape Cod as the pandemic impacts the travel business and Cape tourism industry during its peak booking season.
He said the House was working on a package that will go towards helping the small businesses weather the pandemic over the next few weeks to months.
“We want to make sure that people get access to the support that they need to make sure our economy rebounds as strongly as we can,” said Kennedy.
“Everybody needs to do their part so we can keep these transmissions down, so we don’t overwhelm our health system. And each of us can do something about that. If we’re willing and able to make that commitment now, then this disruption won’t be nearly as bad as it might otherwise be.”
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