Ted Kennedy

Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second-most-senior member of the Senate when he died. He is ranked fifth in U.S. history for length of continuous service as a senator. Kennedy was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, an uncle of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the father of former U.S. Representative Patrick J. Kennedy.

Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Boston, Kennedy attended Harvard University. After a brief stint with the United States Army, he earned his law degree from the University of Virginia. Kennedy began his career as an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts before being elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election in 1962 to fill the vacant Senate seat previously held by his brother John, who had taken office to become president of the United States. He was elected to a full six-year term two years later in 1964 and re-elected seven more times. After the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969 resulted in the death of his automobile passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence. The incident and its aftermath hindered his chances of becoming U.S. president.

In 1980, Kennedy ran in the Democratic presidential primaries for the party's presidential nomination, but lost to the incumbent president, Jimmy Carter. Kennedy was known for his oratorical skills. His 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert and his 1980 rallying cry for modern American liberalism were among his best-known speeches. He became recognized as "The Lion of the Senate" through his long tenure and influence. Kennedy and his staff wrote more than 300 bills that were enacted into law. Unabashedly liberal, Kennedy championed an interventionist government that emphasized economic and social justice, but he was also known for working with Republicans to find compromises.