News (USA)

Joe Kennedy III wins seat held by retiring congressman Barney Frank

Joe Kennedy III wins seat held by retiring congressman Barney Frank

BOSTON — The American first family of Democratic politics is back in national prominence as the 32-year-old grandson of the slain New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy has been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District.

Joesph Partick Kennedy III

The seat became open when longtime Democratic openly gay Representative Barney Frank announced his retirement earlier this year.

Kennedy is a former Massachusetts prosecutor and Peace Corps member who has endorsed full equality for the LGBTQ community. His great-uncles are the late President John F. Kennedy and long-time Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who died in office in 2009.

Kennedy’s opponent, Sean Bielat is a businessman and Marine Corps reservist.

The past two years marked the first time since the election of his great-uncle, John F. Kennedy, who was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1946, that a member of the Kennedy family had not served in elective office in Washington.

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