Joe Kennedy III | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2023 | |
| United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland | |
| In office December 19, 2022 – December 13, 2024 | |
| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Mick Mulvaney |
| Succeeded by | TBD |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's4th district | |
| In office January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Barney Frank |
| Succeeded by | Jake Auchincloss |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Joseph Patrick Kennedy III (1980-10-04)October 4, 1980 (age 44) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent |
|
| Relatives | Kennedy family |
| Education | Stanford University (BS) Harvard University (JD) |
| Signature |  |
Joseph Patrick Kennedy III (born October 4, 1980) is an American politician and diplomat who most recently served as theUnited States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland from 2022 to 2024. Prior to this, Kennedy served as theU.S. representative forMassachusetts's 4th congressional district from 2013 to 2021. A member of theDemocratic Party, he represented a district that extends fromBoston's western suburbs to the state'sSouth Coast. He worked as an assistant district attorney in theCape and Islands andMiddlesex County, Massachusetts, offices before his election to Congress. In January 2021, he became aCNN commentator.[1]
A member of theKennedy family, he is a son of U.S. RepresentativeJoseph P. Kennedy II, a grandson ofU.S. Senator andU.S. Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy, a grandnephew of U.S. PresidentJohn F. Kennedy and U.S. SenatorTed Kennedy, and a great-grandson of U.S. Ambassador to the United KingdomJoseph P. Kennedy Sr.
Born in Boston, Kennedy was raised in the area with his twin brother, Matthew Rauch Kennedy. After graduating fromStanford University with a bachelor's degree, he spent two years in theDominican Republic as a member of thePeace Corps, before earning aJuris Doctor atHarvard Law School in 2009. He resigned from his role as assistant district attorney in early 2012 to run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by the retiringBarney Frank. Kennedy was sworn into office in January 2013, and sat on theHouse Committee on Energy and Commerce. In 2020, Kennedy unsuccessfully challenged incumbent SenatorEd Markey for the Democratic nomination in theMassachusetts U.S. Senate election.[2] He was succeeded by fellow Democrat, and distant cousin-in-law,Jake Auchincloss.[3]
Since leaving office, he has founded Groundwork Project, which focuses on boosting local community organizing efforts throughout the United States.[4] He has also joined several advisory boards and has appeared as a political commentator forCNN.[5] On June 4, 2021, PresidentJoe Biden appointed him to be a member of thePresident's Commission on White House Fellowships.[6] In December 2022, Kennedy was named theUnited States Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs by President Biden.[7]
Kennedy was born on October 4, 1980,[8] inBrigham and Women's Hospital inBoston, to Sheila Brewster (Rauch) (b. 1949) andJoseph P. Kennedy II. He was born eight minutes after his fraternal twin brother, Matthew. The twins are the eldest grandsons of SenatorRobert F. Kennedy andEthel Kennedy. Kennedy is also the great-great-grandson ofBenjamin Brewster, one of the original trustees ofStandard Oil, and a direct descendant ofMayflowerPilgrimWilliam Brewster.[9][10] They were raised in Brighton and the coastal town ofMarshfield, Massachusetts, also spending summers onCape Cod.[11] From birth, Kennedy was surrounded by politics; in 1980, his parents worked on thepresidential campaign of U.S. SenatorTed Kennedy, the boys' grand-uncle. Kennedy's father was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986. His parents divorced in 1991. The twins spent the following years moving between Brighton andCambridge, Massachusetts.[10]
After graduating fromBuckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, Kennedy and his brother enrolled atStanford University, where he majored inmanagement science and engineering. Kennedy's reputation as ateetotaler earned him the college nickname "Milkman", as his teammates on the clublacrosse team would jokingly order him glasses of milk at bars.[10][12] At Stanford, Kennedy roomed with futureNBA playerJason Collins.[13]
After graduating in 2003, Kennedy joined thePeace Corps; a fluent Spanish speaker, he worked in theDominican Republic'sPuerto Plata province from 2004 to 2006, helping local tour guides in the 27 Charcos reserve in the Río Damajagua Park. He reorganized the group with some outside backing, directing the guides to rebuild parts of the park and develop skills to make the operation more attractive to tourists.[10][12] "We basically created a union," said Kennedy, who reported that the group's efforts won higher wages for employees while increasing the tour companies' revenue.[14] According to a press release, his other activities in the Peace Corps included "stints as an Anti-Poverty Consultant for the Office of the President of theDemocratic Republic of Timor-Leste and a Research Analyst for theUnited Nations Development Program."[15]
In April 2006, Kennedy returned toMassachusetts, where he and his brother co-chaired Ted Kennedy'sre-election campaign. The same month, Kennedy enrolled inHarvard Law School.[10] There, he worked for theHarvard Legal Aid Bureau, providing legal aid to low-income tenants with foreclosure cases in the wake of the2008 financial crisis, and as a technical editor for theHarvard Human Rights Journal, on a staff with his classmate and future wife, Lauren Anne Birchfield.[10] In 2007, he and Birchfield co-foundedPicture This: Justice and Power, an after-school program for youths in Boston'sJamaica Plain neighborhood.[16][17] He began an internship at the Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office in 2008.[15]
After earning hisJuris Doctor in 2009, Kennedy was hired at theCape and Islands District Attorney's Office as anassistant district attorney (ADA). He considered running for the Cape-based U.S. House seat held by retiring Rep.Bill Delahunt in early 2010 but decided against it.[18] In September 2011, he joined theMiddlesex County, Massachusetts District Attorney's Office, also as an ADA.[19] He resigned several months later, in preparation for the announcement that he would seek political office.[20]
In January 2012, Kennedy announced he would form an exploratory committee to run in the newly redrawn4th congressional district of Massachusetts.[20][21] Kennedy explained, "I will then begin to reach out to the people of the Fourth District, in order to hear directly from them about the challenges they are facing and their ideas on how we can restore fairness to our system. I will make a final decision about entering the race in the weeks thereafter."[22][23]
He officially entered the election in February 2012.[24] In an announcement video, Kennedy declared, "I believe this country was founded on a simple idea: that every person deserves to be treated fairly, by each other and by their government".[25] In the same video, Kennedy vowed to fight for a "fair job plan", a "better educational system", a "fair tax code", and a "fair housing policy".[25]
While several Democratic candidates had prepared to enter the race, the field nearly cleared once Kennedy announced his candidacy. His family roots made him the overwhelming favorite among Massachusetts Democrats.[26][27] In the September 6 primary, he faced Rachel Brown, aLyndon LaRouche acolyte, and Herb Robinson, an engineer and musician, winning the primary with around 90 percent of the vote.[28] He was elected to theHouse of Representatives on November 6, 2012, defeatingRepublican candidateSean Bielat, winning over 60% of the vote.
In the 2014 election, Kennedy ran unopposed in the primary and general elections. On November 4, 2014, he was re-elected to a second term with 184,158 votes (98%).[29]
In 2016, after running unopposed in the Democratic primary, Kennedy was re-elected to a third term, defeating Republican David Rosa by more than 40 percentage points.[30]
Kennedy was mentioned as a potential candidate for the2018 Massachusetts gubernatorial election[31] but declined, running for re-election to the House and saying he had no plans to run for any other office.[32] He was re-elected unopposed.
| Committee assignments |
|---|
| 115th Congress(2017–19)[33] |
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Kennedy was sworn into the113th U.S. Congress on January 3, 2013, and assigned to theCommittee on Foreign Affairs and theCommittee on Science, Space, and Technology. He praised the technology committee assignment as an opportunity to secure federal funding, includingNational Science Foundation andSmall Business Innovation Research grants, for life sciences companies in his district. As a freshman in his party, he was unable to secure a seat he had sought on theEducation Committee.[34]
During a February science committee hearing, Kennedy questionedTexas Instruments president Richard Templeton about the company's efforts to compensate cancer-stricken former employees of itsAttleboro, Massachusetts, nuclear facility.[35][36] A prolific fundraiser, he launched hispolitical action committee, the 4MA PAC, in April.[37][38] As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, he traveled in May with four other legislators toAfghanistan, where they met with PresidentHamid Karzai and members of the military.[39] That month, he was named chairman of GovernorDeval Patrick'sSTEM Advisory Council.[40]
On July 24, 2013, Kennedy was one of seven members of theCongressional Progressive Caucus[41] (CPC) to vote against the Amash-Conyers amendment to limit Section 215 of thePatriot Act, which tried to restrictNSA surveillance programs. In contrast, a majority of both CPC members and of Democratic members of Congress voted for the amendment, while Kennedy stood out as a supporter of the party leadership. His vote has been criticized as a sign for a lack of commitment tocivil liberties.[42]
Kennedy was a member of theU.S.-Japan Caucus.[43]
On January 26, 2018, House Minority LeaderNancy Pelosi and Senate Minority LeaderChuck Schumer announced that Kennedy would deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's 2018 State of the Union address.[44][45] His selection came after criticism that theDemocratic Party had relied too heavily on its oldest leaders since the2016 presidential election. In choosing Kennedy, the party was seen as trying to bridge the gap with a new face attached toone of the most famous names in American politics.[46] On January 30, he gave the response to television cameras and a live studio audience in the automotive body shop ofDiman Regional Vocational Technical High School atFall River,Massachusetts.[47] The location was meant to emphasize the role immigrants have in American society. He spent the opening minutes of his speech boasting about the economy and industrial history of Fall River, a city inhis district. His audience included Diman Regional Technical School students. He praisedBlack Lives Matter, and spoke in Spanish aboutchildren who were brought into the United States illegally when they were minors.[48] He also took numerous swings at Trump, criticizing theDepartment of Justice for "rolling back civil rights by the day" and attacking the administration for "targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection".[49] He accused Trump of turning American life "into a zero-sum game",[49] and said that Democrats intended to aid the middle and lower classes. He closed by characterizing the state of the union as "hopeful, resilient, enduring".[49]
On August 26, 2019, Kennedy announced he was considering a primary challenge against incumbent SenatorEd Markey, and on September 21, he formally announced his candidacy. He announced that he would not seek re-election, instead challenging Markey in the Democratic primary for the 2020 United States Senate election in Massachusetts.[50][51] On September 1, 2020, Markey defeated him in the Democratic primary. Kennedy became the first member ofhis family to lose an election in Massachusetts.[52][53][54]
His defeat was widely attributed to his inability to explain his reasons for running. Additionally, Markey had strength amongprogressives andyounger voters, buoyed by active youth involvement. Kennedy was endorsed by House SpeakerNancy Pelosi, while Markey had the support of Senate Minority LeaderChuck Schumer, former Vice PresidentAl Gore, SenatorElizabeth Warren, RepresentativeAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youth-ledSunrise Movement, andThe Boston Globe.[55][56] The race was considered a showdown between the Democratic establishment and its new and growing progressive wing, although the lines between the two were blurred, as Kennedy was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, endorsed by many members, and Markey had been in Congress 43 years at the time.[57][58]
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On December 19, 2022, President Biden announced Kennedy would replaceMick Mulvaney asU.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. Mulvaney retired in 2021.[59]
Although not strictly a diplomatic role, he is the sixth Kennedy family member to serve as a diplomat/foreign envoy. CousinCaroline Kennedy wasU.S. Ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017 and has beenU.S. Ambassador to Australia since June 2022. AuntVictoria Reggie Kennedy has beenU.S. Ambassador to Austria since January 2022. AuntJean Kennedy Smith wasU.S. Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. UncleSargent Shriver wasU.S. Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970. Great-grandfatherJoseph P. Kennedy Sr. wasU.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1940.
Kennedy vacated the position on December 13, 2024, ahead of the impending end of the Biden administration.[60]
Kennedy has co-sponsored legislation to studyreparations for slavery, supports measures to expand thecivil rights of Native Americans, opposes discrimination in employment, housing, education, and health care, and supports removing barriers to equal opportunities forpeople with disabilities, including improving access topublic transit, housing, voting, and education. He supportsLGBTQIA+ rights, recognition of a nationalTransgender Day of Remembrance and was a member of the Congressional Transgender Equality Task Force. In the area ofgender equity, he is an advocate of legislation to endworkplace discrimination andwage discrimination and is a supporter of theMe Too movement.[61][non-primary source needed]
Kennedy helped raise funds in 2016 for the defeat ofQuestion 4 tolegalize cannabis for recreational use in Massachusetts.[62][63] He also voted against theRohrabacher–Farr amendment in 2015 which limits the enforcement of federal law in states that havelegalized medical cannabis.[62][64] In November 2018 he changed his stance towards cannabis and endorsed its legalization at the federal level, however.[65] In January 2020 he co-sponsored a bill to federally legalize cannabis known as theMarijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act.[66]
Kennedy co-sponsored theGreen New Deal, and supports aggressive action to reducecarbon emissions, enforcepollution control standards, protectpublic lands fromfossil fuel extraction, promoteclean energy alternatives topipelines andcompressor stations, and invest in related infrastructure and scientific research. He supports strictfuel efficiency standards and the elimination of exemptions to theClean Air Act, and opposed the United States' withdrawal from theParis Agreement under President Donald Trump.[67]
Kennedy has helped pass legislation to guarantee access toSTEM andvocational education, and co-sponsored legislation toeliminate most student debt. He has also co-sponsored legislation to reduce racial discrimination in housing, favors increasing the portion of federal grants earmarked forminority-ownedsmall businesses, and supportscriminal justice reform.[68][non-primary source needed]
Kennedy supports strengtheningSocial Security andMedicare, and favors having Medicare negotiateprescription drug prices directly withdrug manufacturers. Kennedy is also a supporter ofuniversal health-care.[69]
| Year | Democrat | Republican | 3rd party | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | Pct. | Candidate | Votes | Pct. | Candidate | Party | Votes | Pct. | |
| 2012 | Joseph P. Kennedy III | 221,303 | 61.1% | Sean D. Bielat | 129,936 | 35.9% | David A. Rosa | Independent | 10,741 | 3.0% |
| 2014 | Joseph P. Kennedy III(incumbent) | 184,158 | 97.9% | (no candidate) | write-ins | 3,940 | 2.1% | |||
| 2016 | Joseph P. Kennedy III(incumbent) | 265,823 | 70.1% | David A. Rosa | 113,055 | 29.8% | write-ins | 335 | 0.1% | |
| 2018 | Joseph P. Kennedy III(incumbent) | 245,289 | 97.7% | (no candidate) | write-ins | 5,727 | 2.3% | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Ed Markey (incumbent) | 782,694 | 55.35 | |
| Democratic | Joseph P. Kennedy III | 629,359 | 44.51 | |
| Total votes | 100.0% | |||
Kennedy marriedhealth policy lawyer[71] Lauren Anne Birchfield, a graduate of theUniversity of California, Los Angeles and a finalist for theRhodes Scholarship, inCorona del Mar, California, on December 1, 2012.[72] The couple met in Harvard Law School, where they took a class taught by future U.S. SenatorElizabeth Warren.[73] On December 29, 2015, Birchfield gave birth to their daughter, Eleanor.[74] On December 20, 2017, Kennedy announced the birth of their second child, a son, James.[75] The family lives inNewton, Massachusetts.[76]
Kennedy's net worth is about $43 million, which made him among the wealthiest members of Congress.[77]
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| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's 4th congressional district 2013–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Response to the State of the Union address 2018 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Vacant Title last held by Mick Mulvaney2021 | United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland 2022–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former US Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former US Representative | Succeeded byas Former US Representative |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
