Joseph P. Kennedy III | |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th district |
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Assumed office January 3, 2013 |
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Preceded by | Barney Frank |
Personal details | |
Born |
Joseph Patrick Kennedy III October 4, 1980 Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Lauren Anne Birchfield (m. 2012) |
Children | 1 |
Parents |
Joseph P. Kennedy II Sheila Brewster Rauch |
Alma mater |
Stanford University Harvard Law School |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Website |
Congressional website Campaign website |
Committee assignments |
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114th Congress (2015–17) |
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy III (born October 4, 1980) is an American lawyer, politician, and a member of the Kennedy family, serving as the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district since 2013. He is a Democrat whose district stretches from the western suburbs of Boston to the state's South Coast. A son of former U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II, he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer and as an assistant district attorney in the Cape and Islands and Middlesex offices before his election to Congress.
Born in Brighton, Massachusetts, Kennedy was raised in the Boston area with his twin brother, Matthew Rauch "Matt" Kennedy. After attending Stanford University he spent two years in the Dominican Republic as a member of the Peace Corps, and earned his law degree at Harvard Law School in 2009. He resigned as a prosecutor in early 2012 to run for the seat held by retiring Congressman Barney Frank. He easily won the Democratic nomination and went on to defeat Republican candidate Sean Bielat. He was sworn into office in January 2013 and sits on the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Kennedy was born October 4, 1980 in Brighton, a neighborhood of Boston, to Sheila Brewster (Rauch) and U.S. Representative Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy II. He was born eight minutes after his fraternal twin brother, Matthew. He and Matt are the eldest grandsons of Senator Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. Kennedy was raised in Brighton and in the coastal town of Marshfield, also spending summers on Cape Cod. From birth, Kennedy was engulfed in politics; in 1980, his parents were working on the presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, the boys' great-uncle. Kennedy's father was elected to Congress in 1986. The pressures of political life strained Joseph and Sheila's marriage, and they divorced in 1991. The twins spent the following years moving between Brighton and Cambridge.