LOWELL — The state Senate voted Monday to set a special election for the 1st Middlesex Senate District seat previously held by the late state Sen. Ed Kennedy for March 3, with primary elections one month earlier on Feb. 3.

Kennedy died Oct. 1 after an illness at the age of 74. Kennedy had held his seat since winning the election of 2018, succeeding Eileen Donoghue, who had left to become Lowell city manager. Kennedy had more than a year left in his term, with the next regular election for the Legislature set for November of next year.

After a redistricting in 2021, the 1st Middlesex District includes Lowell, Dracut, Dunstable, Pepperell and Tyngsboro.

Nomination papers for the special election are available starting this week, but even before now the field was beginning to form. On Frid

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