Newly elected Massachusetts Democratic Representative Joseph Kennedy III (C) smiles as he joins the 113th Congress in the Capitol in Washington January 3, 2013. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Washington: US Democrats will roll out political royalty to respond to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday in the form of congressman Joe Kennedy, returning the family dynasty to the American spotlight.
The third term congressman from Massachusetts will provide his party's official rebuttal to Trump's address to a joint session of Congress, providing the 37-year-old liberal lawmaker with a golden opportunity to push back publicly against the president on issues such as immigration, civil and transgender rights, health care and diversity.
While the role of opposition respondent is often seen as an unenviable one -- recent responses including by Senator Marco Rubio have been roundly mocked or ignored -- it raises Kennedy's profile at a time when several Democrats see him as a possible future flagbearer.
The red-maned lawmaker is the grandson of former attorney general and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy and grandnephew of assassinated president John F. Kennedy.
He has gained a loyal following through a series of passionate speeches over the past year that went viral, including one viewed 15 million times in which he promoted diversity after a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Kennedy has also embraced the cause of health care, an issue championed by his late great uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy. In March he delivered a crushing rebuttal to House Speaker Paul Ryan who spoke of the "mercy" of the Republican health care plan that ultimately failed in Congress in 2017.
"There's no mercy in a country that turns their back on those most in need of protection: the elderly, the poor, the sick and the suffering," Kennedy told a congressional panel.
Kennedy has invited a transgender soldier, Staff Sergeant Patricia King, as his guest to the State of the Union address.
Joe Kennedy III attended Stanford University, then spent two years in the Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer before earning a law degree from Harvard and working as an assistant district attorney in Massachusetts.
