Victoria Reggie Kennedy | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kennedy in 2025 | |
| United States Ambassador toAustria | |
| In office January 12, 2022 – January 20, 2025 | |
| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Trevor Traina |
| Succeeded by | Arthur Fisher |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Victoria Anne Reggie (1954-02-26)February 26, 1954 (age 71) Crowley, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Kennedy family (by marriage) |
| Education | Tulane University (BA,JD) |
Victoria Anne Kennedy (néeReggie; born February 26, 1954)[1] is an American diplomat, attorney, and activist who served as theUnited States Ambassador to Austria from 2022 to 2025. She is the widow and the second wife of longtimeU.S. senatorTed Kennedy.
A member of theKennedy family through her late husband, Kennedy was born in Louisiana and became a practicing attorney after attendingTulane University Law School. As a partner atKeck, Mahin & Cate, she specialized in financial law. She was appointed as ambassador by PresidentJoe Biden in 2021 and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate.
The second of six children, Victoria Anne Reggie was born inCrowley inAcadia Parish in southwesternLouisiana. Her father, Edmund Reggie, was aLouisiana judge and banker, and her mother, Doris Ann Boustany, was aDemocratic National committeewoman.[2][3] Reggie is ofLebanese descent, as all of her grandparents wereMaronites fromLebanon who immigrated to the United States and later settled to Louisiana.[4] Reggie's grandparents became important members of the localRoman Catholic church, and later their children became involved in business and politics. Her brother isDenis Reggie, a photographer who popularized the genre of wedding photojournalism.
Reggie's immediate family was wealthy because of money from her maternal family's interest in the Bunny Bread baking concern inNew Orleans.[5] She was raised in a family that was constantly involved in politics and campaigns. At the1956 Democratic National Convention, her father helped deliver his state forJohn F. Kennedy's unsuccessful bid for the vice-presidential nomination. Over time, John Kennedy developed a close social relationship with the Reggies.[6] Her mother cast the only Louisiana delegate vote forTed Kennedy at the1980 Democratic National Convention.[7]
Victoria Reggie attendedparochial schools growing up and was a straight-A student. She attendedNewcomb College atTulane University in New Orleans, where she graduated with aBachelor of Arts in English,magna cum laude,[8] was elected toPhi Beta Kappa and was president of theKappa Alpha Theta sorority.[5] She then received herJuris Doctor degree,summa cum laude in 1979 fromTulane University Law School. There she was a member of theTulane Law Review. Her education at Tulane, along with twenty years of other Tulane tuition for her brothers and sisters, was paid for by scholarships awarded by a political ally of her father.[9][10]
After law school, Reggieclerked for JudgeRobert Arthur Sprecher at theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit inChicago. As an attorney, she specialized in banking law.
Kennedy is president and co-founder of Common Sense about Kids and Guns, an advocacy group begun in 1999 which seeks to reduce gun deaths and injuries to children in the U.S. She is a member of the board of trustees of theBrady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and has served on the board ofStop Handgun Violence in Boston.[8] She is a board member ofCatholic Democrats and authored the preface for their 2009 bookThe Catholic Case for Obama.
Reports indicated that the Senator Kennedy expressed the wish that his wife would succeed him in office,[11] and speculation towards that possibility continued during his illness.[12]
Upon his death, some thought that she would be appointed by then-GovernorDeval Patrick to take the Senator's seat until the special election could take place, but she declined[13][14][15] and the governor instead appointed long-time Kennedy associatePaul G. Kirk. Some Democratic officials hoped she would agree to run for Senate to finish out her husband's term, but she declined again and instead endorsedMartha Coakley for the special election to fill the vacant seat.[16] Coakley was defeated byScott Brown. A year later, speculation continued as some noted Democrats saw her as their best chance to take back Senator Kennedy's former seat from Brown and the Republicans in the 2012 election;[17] however, she again declined,[18] and the Democratic nomination was awarded toElizabeth Warren, who went on to defeat Brown in November 2012.[19]
Kennedy was invited to speak at the spring commencement of the CatholicAnna Maria College inPaxton, Massachusetts, but at the request of BishopRobert Joseph McManus of theDiocese of Worcester, Kennedy was disinvited by the college. The bishop and other Catholic organizations had expressed reservations about a stalwartpro-choice advocate like Kennedy speaking at a Catholic university.[20]
In February 2014, U.S. PresidentBarack Obama nominated her to serve as a governor of theUnited States Postal Service (a member of theBoard of Governors of the United States Postal Service), for a term expiring December 8, 2016. Had she been confirmed, Kennedy would assume the board seat being vacated by Carolyn L. Gallagher. The nomination expired with the end of Obama's term as president.[21][22]
In 2021, U.S. PresidentJoe Biden nominated Kennedy to serve as theAmbassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Austria. In mid-June, the office of Austrian PresidentAlexander Van der Bellen had confirmed the required "agreement" for Kennedy's appointment was issued.[23] On October 5, 2021, a hearing on her nomination was held before theSenate Foreign Relations Committee.[24] On October 19, 2021, her nomination was reported favorably out of committee.[25] On October 26, 2021, Kennedy was confirmed by the Senate byvoice vote.[26] Her swearing in as the United States Ambassador to Austria took place atEdward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate on November 16, 2021, with Supreme Court JusticeStephen Breyer administering her oath of office.[27] She arrived inVienna on January 7, 2022, and presented her credentials to PresidentAlexander Van der Bellen on January 12, 2022.[28][29]
She met her first husband, Grier C. Raclin, atelecommunications attorney[4] (who later became a senior executive atCharter Communications inSt. Louis, Missouri),[30] when they clerked together at theEverett McKinley Dirksen Federal Courthouse. Their 1981 church wedding was in Crowley and "feted four hundred guests with a week's worth of parties."
Following marriage, the couple moved toWashington, D.C., where she practiced banking andsavings and loan law and restructuring andbankruptcy law forKeck, Mahin & Cate.[3][4] She was made partner there, and was known to be "charismatic and hard-driving" and a tough negotiator in settlement talks[4] and "as a real star" for her ability to work on complicated financial transactions.[3] Reggie and Raclin had two children, Curran (born 1982) and Caroline (born 1985).[2] They were divorced in 1990.[2][31] Upon her divorce, she was left to juggle her career as a lawyer with her role as a single mother of two young children.[3]
In 2011, Reggie made an effort to transfer the MassachusettsKennedy compound to theEdward M. Kennedy Institute.[32] Her desire to transfer the Kennedy compound put Reggie at odds with her two stepsons through her marriage to Ted Kennedy.[33]
Kennedy and Reggie began dating in June 1991[34] after meeting at a party celebrating her parents' 40th wedding anniversary.[3] Ted Kennedy said of this meeting, "I had known Vicki before, but this was the first time I think I really saw her."[7] The relationship became serious in September 1991.[7] They were engaged in March 1992, and married July 3, 1992, in a civil ceremony at his home inMcLean, Virginia.[35] His political career had suffered from a long period of womanizing, drinking, and adverse publicity, and she is credited with allegedly stabilizing his personal life and helping him resume a productive career in the Senate.[3][6] Kennedy was also reportedly devoted to her two children.[3][6] However, it has also been acknowledged that Reggie in fact began dating Kennedy during the time his nephewWilliam Kennedy Smith was undergoing a rape trial, which showed to be a major political liability for Kennedy.[36][37][38]
In Ted Kennedy's1994 senatorial re-election campaign againstmoderate RepublicanMitt Romney, she was credited byThe New York Times with "giving him a political advantage in a difficult contest."[2] For aBoston,Massachusetts, reception she organized, 1,200 influentialNew England women met five of Kennedy's Senate colleagues.[4] Reggie became Ted's principal assistant and closest political advisor.[6] By 1997, she no longer practiced law.[6] Following Ted Kennedy's May 2008 diagnosis ofbrain cancer, Reggie became his primary caregiver.[6]
Mrs. Kennedy received her undergraduate degree, a B.A. magna cum laude, from Newcomb College of Tulane University, in New Orleans, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and other honor societies and was involved in student government. She was graduated summa cum laude from the Tulane Law School in 1979, where she was an editor of the Tulane Law Review and was inducted in theOrder of the Coif. In May 1998, Mrs. Kennedy received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from theSuffolk University Law School in Boston for her service to her community.
Attorney and consultant Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy, said she was cautious on the issue of raising rates and would defer judgment until she gains more experience on the board.
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Austria 2022–2025 | Vacant |
February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009 | ||
| Electoral history |  | |
| Books | ||
| Speeches | ||
| Family, family tree |
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| Related | ||
 Austrian Empire(1838–1867) |  | |
|---|---|---|
 Austro-Hungarian Empire(1867–1917) | ||
 Republic of Austria(1921–1938, 1946–present) | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
