The Kennedys Have Just Lost Their Winning Streak

The Kennedy Dynasty has lost its power in government. Recently, Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, a Democrat from Massachusetts, lost his bid for the United States Senate against incumbent Democratic Senator, Ed Markey. With running for re-election to the House of Representatives impossible, he would be the last Kennedy in Congress, after a record of 59 years in which a Kennedy served in Congress.

How did the record begin? Young Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts had beaten Vice President Richard Nixon for the Presidency in the closest election of that time in 1960. Once sworn in, he catapulted his brother, Robert F. Kennedy to the Chief Executive of the Department of Justice as Attorney General. Also, once JFK resigned to be sworn in as President, his Senate seat went to a special election. Do you know who ran for the seat? His youngest brother, Ted Kennedy, who would be the only Kennedy to serve in Congress up to his death in 2010. In 1964, after his brother’s death in 1963, RFK ran for the United States Senate from our own state, New York, beating Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating. Unfortunately, he would also be assassinated on the 1968 Presidential Campaign trail.

Many of the brothers’ children and other family members would later serve in government. JFK’s daughter, Caroline, was an Ambassador to Japan during the Obama Administration. Sargent Shriver, husband of Eunice Kennedy, was the 1972 Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee. Amy Kennedy, wife of former Representative Patrick Kennedy, the son of Ted Kennedy, ran against incumbent Republican Representative Jeff Van Drew for the House in 2020. They are a very popular family still to this date.

After Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III lost in a tense primary to Ed Markey in 2020, he would be the first incumbent Kennedy to ever lose an election to a congressional position. Will there be another Kennedy in Congress ever again? Only time will tell.