Kennedy, Ted

Kennedy, Ted (Edward Moore Kennedy), 1932–, U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1962–), brother of John F. Kennedyand Robert F. Kennedy and youngest son of Joseph P. Kennedy, b. Boston, Mass. He served (1961–62) as an assistant district attorney in Massachusetts before being elected (1962) as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. After the assassination of his brother Robert in 1968, he became the acknowledged leader of Senate liberals and served (1969–71) as assistant majority leader. His political future was marred by his involvement in the Chappaquiddick incident (July, 1969), in which Mary Jo Kopechne, a passenger, drowned when the car he was driving fell into a creek. Kennedy's reputation recovered, however, and he continued to advocate such liberal programs as national health insurance and tax reform. He was long considered a potential Democratic president, but withdrew in 1974 from the 1976 race and failed in a 1980 primary challenge to Jimmy Carter. He has chaired the Senate judiciary (1979–81), labor and human resources (1987–95), and health, education, labor, and pensions (2001–3, 2007–) committees. Kennedy is the author of Decisions for a Decade (1968) and In Critical Condition (1972).

Bibliography

See biographies by W. H. Honan (1972) and A. Clymer (1999); studies by J. M. Burns (1976) and R. Sherrill (1976); B. Hersh, The Education of Edward Kennedy (1972) and The Shadow President (1997).