Ted Kennedy has been serving in the U.S. Senate for the state of Massachusetts since 1962. He is the second longest serving member of the Senate behind Senator Byrd of West Virginia. Brothers of John and Robert Kennedy, Ted is the current patriarch of the ill-fated Kennedy family political dynasty and is the figurehead of the Democratic Party.

Early Life

Born February 22, 1932, the youngest of nine Irish-American Kennedy children in Boston, Massachusetts, Ted's future career in politics was far from suprising. His father, Joe Kennedy Sr., was the U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. in the years just before WWII and made many business and political allies around the world to secure political careers for his sons. Ted attended the Fessenden School and later the Milton Academy (both in Mass.), entering Harvard in 1950. Caught cheating in 1951, Ted was expelled from Harvard and entered the U.S. Army, where he served for two years in Paris' Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE*), presently NATO. Returning to the U.S., Ted re-entered Harvard and graduated in 1956. Two years later he traveled to the Netherlands to attend the Hague Academy of International Law and later earned a law degree from the University of Virginia. While at UV, Ted managed his brother John F. Kennedy's 1958 Senate re-election campaign. Ted was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1959.

Politics: A Kennedy Tradition

In 1962, after a special election was called to fill the Senate seat (MA) left vacant by John F. Kennedy due to his Presidential bid, Ted became Senator for Massachusetts. In 1964 he was elected to his first full six-year term. Every six years following, Ted Kennedy has been re-elected to the Senate seat. The Kennedy dynasty met tragedy a year after Ted's Senate win, with the assassination of his President brother John. In 1964, Ted suffered serious injuries after his plane crashed. In 1968, Ted's brother and presidential hopeful Robert was assassinated. With his two nationally recognized brothers dead, Ted effectively became the torch-bearer of the Kennedy family and surrogate father to his brothers' thirteen children.(Source: CNN)

Following the assassinations of his brothers John and Robert, many saw Ted as the next in line for the presidency. While supporters urged him to run in 1972 and 1976, he waited until 1980 before entering the race against the sitting Democratic President Carter. The President was suffering from unpopularity and Ted's bid seemed likely to succeed; however, with the Iran hostage crisis (Source: Wikipedia) came a huge boost for the President's ratings. Additionally, the 1969 "Chappaquiddick incident," in which a car carrying Kennedy (who was driving) and Mary Jo Kopechne (who Kennedy offered a ride home to following a party), drove off a bridge killing Kopechne, was severely damaging to Kennedy's reputation. At the 1980 Democratic Convention, where delegates chose to run the incumbent Carter, Kennedy delivered a speech ending with: "For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." (Source: Americanrhetoric.com)

The Democratic Figurehead

Ted Kennedy's official website describes the Senior Senator as "active on a wide range of other issues, including education reform and immigration reform, raising the minimum wage, defending the rights of workers and their families, strengthening civil rights, assisting individuals with disabilities, fighting for cleaner water and cleaner air, and protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare." (Source: U.S. Senate)

Current Senate Committee Assignments

• Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Chairman
• Senate Judiciary Committee
  • Immigration Subcommittee, Chairman
• Armed Services Committee
  • Seapower Subcommittee, Chairman
• Congressional Joint Economic Committee
• Senate Majority Whip, 1969-1971
• Congressional Friends of Ireland, Member
• John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Trustee

Since his failed bid for the presidency, Kennedy has still maintained his prominence as the Democratic leader. He has attacked the President for the handling of the Iraq War, blocked the judicial appointments of those he saw as a right-wing threat to the Constitution, has taken a strongly pro-choice stance since Roe v. Wade and is one of five senators who publicly support same-sex marriage. He supported his Massachusetts Senator partner John Kerry in his 2004 presidential campaign and said that if Kerry had chosen to run in 2008, he would have had Kennedy's support. Time magazine in 2006 selected Kennedy as one of "America's 10 Best Senators," noting that "the liberal icon had become such a prodigoius cross-aisle dealer that Republican leaders began pressuring party colleagues not to sponsor bills with him." (Source: Time)

Major Legislation

• 2007: As chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Kennedy raised the minimum wage by $2.10 to $7.25

Ted Kennedy currently lives in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts (home of the "Kennedy Compound") with his second wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy. He has two step-children, Victoria's Curran and Caroline, and three children from his first marriage to Virgina Joan Bennett, Kara (b.1960), Edward Jr. (b.1961) and Patrick (b.1967). He has five grandchildren. If he completes his 8th full term in 2013, he will have been serving as a Senator for fifty years.