Edward M. Kennedy Jr. | |
---|---|
Member of the Connecticut Senate from the 12th district | |
In office January 7, 2015 –January 9, 2019 | |
Preceded by | J. Edward Meyer |
Succeeded by | Christine Cohen |
Personal details | |
Born | Edward Moore Kennedy Jr. September 26,1961 Boston,Massachusetts,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Kiki Gershman (m. 1993) |
Children | 2 |
Parent(s) | Ted Kennedy Joan Bennett Kennedy |
Relatives | Kennedy family |
Education | Wesleyan University (BA) Yale University (MS) University of Connecticut, Hartford (JD) |
Edward Moore Kennedy Jr. (born September 26, 1961) is an American lawyer and politician. He is a partner at Epstein Becker & Green, a firm headquartered in New York City, and previously represented Connecticut's 12th State Senate district in the Connecticut State Senate from 2015 to 2019. He is a son of United States Senate member Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts and a nephew of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Kennedy was born in the Brighton section of Boston, Massachusetts to U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and Joan Bennett Kennedy during the presidency of his paternal uncle, John. He is the brother of Kara (1960–2011) and Patrick J. Kennedy (born 1967).
In 1973, when Kennedy was twelve, osteosarcoma (a form of bone cancer) was diagnosed in his right leg. The leg was surgically amputated on November 17, 1973. [1] On that same day, his father had escorted his niece Kathleen down the aisle at her wedding and rushed back to the hospital. A made-for-TV movie, The Ted Kennedy Jr. Story (1986), concentrated on this event in young Kennedy's life. [2] [3]
In 1982, his mother, Joan, revealed that Kennedy missed being aboard Air Florida Flight 90 by just ten minutes, which crashed into the Potomac River on January 13 of that year, killing 74 people. Kennedy was delayed on the drive to the airport and missed the flight.
Kennedy graduated from the private St. Albans School, in Washington, D.C. After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree at Wesleyan University in 1984, he continued his studies at Yale University, earning a master's degree from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. [4] He then attended the University of Connecticut School of Law at night, earning a Juris Doctor degree. [5] On May 19, 2013, Kennedy received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of New Haven. [6]
After graduation he worked at the New Haven law firm Wiggin & Dana specializing in disability issues. He later co-founded and served as president of the Marwood Group, a firm that advises corporations about health care and financial services. He left the Marwood Group in 2014 to join the law firm of Epstein Becker & Green where he advises health care providers, commercial insurers, and life science companies on critical issues related to health care reform policies. [4] [7] [8]
Kennedy is the Chairman of the board of directors of the American Association of People with Disabilities. [9]
On April 8, 2014, Kennedy announced his candidacy for a seat in the Connecticut State Senate representing the state's 12th district. [10] He was elected on November 4. He was re-elected on November 8, 2016. [11] In both election cycles, Kennedy defeated Bruce Wilson Jr. [12] [13]
On June 26, 2017, Kennedy announced that he would not run for Governor of Connecticut in 2018. [14] On February 28, 2018, Kennedy announced he would not seek re-election to the State Senate. [15] On November 6, 2018, Democrat Christine Cohen won the general election to replace Kennedy after defeating Republican Adam Greenberg. [16] [17] She was sworn in on January 9, 2019. [17]
Kennedy was first sworn in to serve in the Connecticut State Senate on January 7, 2015.
Committee assignments
Party leadership
On October 10, 1993, Kennedy married Katherine Anne "Kiki" Gershman (born 1959) [20] on Block Island, Rhode Island. She is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and an environmental advocate. She serves as spokeswoman for Stop the Pipeline, which successfully blocked the Islander East natural gas pipeline across the Long Island Sound. They live in Branford, Connecticut. [21] [22] [23] [24]
The couple have a daughter, Kiley Elizabeth Kennedy (born August 7, 1994, in New Haven), [25] a competitive snowboarder who graduated from Wesleyan University in 2016, and a son, Edward Moore Kennedy III (born February 26, 1998, in New Haven), who graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 2016 and from Wesleyan University in 2020.
Kennedy gave a tribute to his father at his father's public funeral on August 29, 2009. [26]
The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office, serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947, when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts, until 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy II retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.
Edward Moore Kennedy was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1962 to his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party and the prominent Kennedy family, he was the second-most senior member of the Senate when he died. He is ranked fifth in U.S. history for length of continuous service as a senator. Kennedy was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the father of U.S. representative Patrick J. Kennedy.
John Varick Tunney was an American politician who served as a United States Senator and Representative from the state of California in the 1960s and 1970s. A Democrat, Tunney was known for his focus on anti-trust and environmental legislation, especially the Noise Pollution Control Act of 1972 and the anti-trust Tunney Act. Tunney also strongly supported civil rights and shepherded the 1975 expansion of the Voting Rights Act.
Robert Sargent Shriver III is an American activist, attorney, and journalist. He was a member of the Santa Monica City Council from 2004 to 2012, serving as mayor pro tem in 2006 and as mayor during part of 2010. A member of the prominent Shriver and Kennedy families, he is a nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and former U.S. senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy.
The 1964 United States Senate elections were held on November 3. The 33 seats of Class 1 were contested in regular elections. Special elections were also held to fill vacancies. They coincided with the election of President Lyndon B. Johnson by an overwhelming majority, to a full term. His Democratic Party picked up a net two seats from the Republicans. As of 2023, this was the last time either party has had a two-thirds majority in the Senate, which allowed the Senate Democrats to override a veto, propose constitutional amendments, or convict and expel certain officials without any votes from Senate Republicans. However, internal divisions would have prevented the Democrats from having done so. The Senate election cycle coincided with Democratic gains in the House in the same year.
Virginia Joan Kennedy is an American socialite. She was the first wife of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.
The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 99,280 inhabitants. Senators are elected to two-year terms without term limits. The Connecticut State Senate is one of 14 state legislative upper houses whose members serve two-year terms; four-year terms are more common.
The Kennedy Compound consists of three houses on six acres of waterfront property in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. It was once the home of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., an American businessman, investor, and diplomat; his wife, Rose; and their nine children, including U.S. President and Senator John F. Kennedy and U.S. Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy. As an adult, the youngest son, Edward, lived in his parents' house, and it was his primary residence from 1982 until he died of brain cancer at the compound, in August 2009.
Victoria Anne Kennedy is an American diplomat, attorney, and activist who presently serves as the United States Ambassador to Austria since 2022. She is the widow and the second wife of longtime U.S. senator Ted Kennedy.
Paul Grattan Kirk Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts from 2009 to 2010, having been appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of Ted Kennedy. From 1985 to 1989, he chaired the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
The 2006 United States Senate election in Connecticut was held November 7, 2006. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman won his fourth and final term in the Senate, under the Connecticut for Lieberman party banner.
J. Edward Meyer III is an American politician. Meyer, a Democrat, is a former member of the Connecticut State Senate, representing the 12th District from 2005 to 2015. Meyer was also a member of the New York State Assembly, serving as a Republican from 1971 to 1973 and a Democrat from 1973 to 1975.
Edward Joseph McCormack Jr., was an American attorney and politician from Massachusetts. He was most notable for serving as Massachusetts Attorney General from 1959 through 1963.
The 1964 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 3, 1964, with the incumbent Democratic senator, Ted Kennedy, easily defeating his Republican challenger Howard J. Whitmore Jr.
Matthew L. Lesser is an American politician who represents the 9th district in the Connecticut State Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the State House in 2008, and re-elected in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. He won election to the state Senate from the 9th district in 2018, and was reelected in 2020 and 2022. Lesser unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Connecticut Secretary of the State in 2022.
The 1962 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts was held on November 6, 1962. The election was won by Ted Kennedy, the youngest brother of then-President John F. Kennedy, who would remain Senator until his death in 2009.
Jean Ann Kennedy Smith was an American diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and author who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. She was a member of the Kennedy family, the eighth of nine children, and youngest daughter, born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald. Her siblings included President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver. She was also a sister-in-law of Jacqueline Kennedy.
Cody Keenan is an American political advisor and speechwriter who served as the director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama. Keenan studied political science at Northwestern University. After graduation, he worked in the U.S. senate office of Ted Kennedy, before studying for a master's in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. After graduation, he took a full-time position on Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008. In 2009, he assumed the position of deputy director of speechwriting. After Jon Favreau left the White House in 2013, Keenan took over as director of speechwriting.
The 2018 Connecticut gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the next governor and lieutenant governor of Connecticut, concurrently with the election of Connecticut's Class I U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. This race's Democratic margin of victory was the closest to the national average of 3.1 points.
Christine Hunter Cohen is an American politician. She was a member of the Guilford, Connecticut school board from 2015 to 2019, when she resigned to serve on the Connecticut State Senate from the 12th district.