Joseph Kennedy III set to run for Barney Frank's seat in Congress

GlobalPost

Joseph P. Kennedy III, a Massachusetts prosecutor, is set to launch his run for Congress this year and is planning to succeed Democratic US Rep. Barney Frank, the Boston Globe reported.

Kennedy, 31, announced his resignation as a prosecutor in the office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone, Jr., where he has worked since September and is forming an exploratory committee for the seat. He will leave on January 20. He plans to take over Frank's seat, who announced he would not run again in the upcoming election.

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“I am announcing today my intention to explore a candidacy for the United States Congress in the Fourth District of Massachusetts,’’ he said in a statement issued this morning, the Boston Globe reported.

The son of former representative Joseph P. Kennedy II and grandson of the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy, this would be the Kennedy clan’s return to politics since the death of US Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 2009, the Associated Press reported. This would be the family’s first return to national politics since Patrick Kennedy.

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Born and raised in Massachusetts, Kennedy was raised in Marshfield, Brighton and Cambridge. A former Peace Corps volunteer, he is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School. He also worked as a prosecutor on Cape Cod for more than two years.

“My decision to look seriously at elected office is grounded in a deep commitment to public service and my experience – both my own and that of my family -- in finding just, practical, and bipartisan solutions to difficult challenges,’’ Kennedy said in the statement, the Globe reported.

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