Joe Kennedy III
Joseph Patrick Kennedy III (born October 4, 1980) is an American politician and diplomat who currently serves as United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland since 2022. Prior to this, Kennedy served as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district from 2013 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented a district that extends from Boston's western suburbs to the state's South Coast. He worked as an assistant district attorney in the Cape and Islands and Middlesex County, Massachusetts, offices before his election to Congress. In January 2021, he became a CNN commentator.[1]
Joe Kennedy III
A member of the Kennedy family, he is a son of U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II, a grandson of U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, a grandnephew of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, and a great-grandson of U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
Born in Boston, Kennedy was raised in the area with his twin brother, Matthew Rauch Kennedy. After graduating from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree, he spent two years in the Dominican Republic as a member of the Peace Corps, before earning a Juris Doctor at Harvard 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 retiring Barney Frank. Kennedy was sworn into office in January 2013, and sat on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
In 2020, rather than run for re-election to his House seat, Kennedy unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Senator Ed Markey for the Democratic nomination in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate election.[2] He was succeeded by fellow Democrat, and distant cousin-in-law,[3] Jake Auchincloss.[4] Since leaving office, he has founded Project Groundwork, which focuses on boosting local community organizing efforts throughout the United States.[5] He has also joined several advisory boards and began appearing as a political commentator for CNN.[6] On June 4, 2021, President Joe Biden appointed him to be a member of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.[7]
In December 2022, Kennedy was named the United States Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs by President Biden.[8]
Political positions[edit]
Civil rights[edit]
Kennedy has co-sponsored legislation to study reparations for slavery, supports measures to expand the civil rights of Native Americans, opposes discrimination in employment, housing, education, and health care, and supports removing barriers to equal opportunities for people with disabilities, including improving access to public transit, housing, voting, and education. He supports LGBTQIA+ rights, recognition of a national Transgender Day of Remembrance and is a member of the Congressional Transgender Equality Task Force. In the area of gender equity, he is an advocate of legislation to end workplace discrimination and wage discrimination and is a supporter of the Me Too movement.[61]
Marijuana legalization[edit]
Kennedy helped raise funds in 2016 for the defeat of Question 4 to legalize cannabis for recreational use in Massachusetts.[62][63] He also voted against the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment in 2015 which limits the enforcement of federal law in states that have legalized 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 the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act.[66]
Climate change[edit]
Kennedy co-sponsored the Green New Deal, and supports aggressive action to reduce carbon emissions, enforce pollution control standards, protect public lands from fossil fuel extraction, promote clean energy alternatives to pipelines and compressor stations, and invest in related infrastructure and scientific research. He supports strict fuel efficiency standards and the elimination of exemptions to the Clean Air Act, and opposed the United States' withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under President Donald Trump.[67]
Racial inequality[edit]
Kennedy has helped pass legislation to guarantee access to STEM and vocational education, and co-sponsored legislation to eliminate most student debt. He has also co-sponsored legislation to reduce racial discrimination in housing, favors increasing the portion of federal grants earmarked for minority-owned small businesses, and supports criminal justice reform.[68]
Health care[edit]
Kennedy supports strengthening Social Security and Medicare, and favors having Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices directly with drug manufacturers. Kennedy is also a supporter of universal health-care.[69]