U.S. Sen. Ed Markey seems determined to bring down the last Kennedy standing.

That would be controversial Robert. F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Markey described Kennedy as “dangerous, unqualified and unserious” and vowed to vote against his confirmation.

It should be noted that Markey called Trump names worse than that, and Trump got elected.

Markey, seeking re-election in 2020, defeated fellow Democrat challenger Joe Kennedy III, RFK Jr’s nephew, in the Democrat primary.

Now he aims to do the same to his uncle.

While Robert Kennedy, 70, is not a candidate campaigning against the Senator, Markey, 78, seeking re-election in 2026, is a candidate campaigning against Kennedy.

And he is determined to see that the U.S. Senate does not confirm Kennedy to the office.

Markey is currently chair of a subcommittee that deals with primary health care policy. He will lose that chairmanship when the Republicans take over the Senate in January.

“The stakes are life and death,” Markey said dramatically at a press conference last week where he said he would do everything in his power to defeat the Kennedy nomination.

Kennedy, among other controversial statements, has questioned the safety of vaccines and has been described as an anti-vaccine advocate.

Robert Kennedy joined the Trump campaign after he suspended his campaign for president, first running as a Democrat, and then as a third-party candidate.

He left the Democrat Party, but the party left him first.

His presidential candidacy was opposed by most of his Kennedy siblings as was his nomination to join the Trump cabinet.

Should Kennedy be approved by the Senate he will be the only Kennedy of the iconic Democrat family holding national public office, albeit an appointed one and in a Republican administration.

The Kennedys holding public positions currently are all expected to be replaced by the incoming Trump administration.

They include U.S. ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s daughter; U.S. ambassador to Austria Vikki Kennedy, wife of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy; and RFK grandson Joe Kennedy III, special envoy to Northern Ireland.

Robert Kennedy, like other Trump cabinet nominees, has promised sweeping changes in the huge agency, particularly when it comes to Big Pharma and Big Food, as well as halting the FDA’s “war on public health.”

“If you work for the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and are part of the corrupt system, I have two messages for you,” Kennedy tweeted. “One, preserve your records, and two, Pack your bags.”

Kennedy, who aims to “make America healthy again, is determined to get the “poison” out of the food people buy at the grocery store, like taking dyes out of processed food, like cereal, for instance.

He has said he will take on Big Food by going after the ultra-processing of food that experts say contributes to the growing rate of diabetes and obesity among children.

Kennedy will also go after Big Pharma by seeking to ban drug advertising on television the way cigarette advertising was done away with, while seeking to lower drug prices at the same time.

Kennedy will of course be grilled on his proposals when he comes up for Senate confirmation. It is clear that a vote against his confirmation will be viewed as a vote against Trump.

And there are some Democrats who believe that Kennedy should go the way of Matt Gaetz, Trump’s original choice for attorney general who fell by the wayside. But Gaetz was no Robert Kennedy.

His nomination, however, could put Markey in an awkward position in that his campaign and vote against Kennedy could be viewed as support for Big Food and Big Pharma, two economic goliaths that progressives are supposed to hate.

It would be a mistake, however, to sell Markey short. He has been around so long that there is hardly a political maneuver he has not practiced.

He was the first and only politician to defeat a Kennedy in Massachusetts. He knows the game and knows how to survive.

He is already running for re-election in 2026 and again campaigning against a Kennedy.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com