Congressman Joe Kennedy III
By Ray O’Hanlon
This will be a moment to shine.
And to follow in a long line of big family footsteps.
Congressman Joseph Kennedy III will deliver the Democratic response to President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 30.
The Boston Globe reported that Kennedy, who is 37, will take to national television to issue the traditional response to the president’s speech.
The Huffington Post was reporting today that Kennedy was “expected to appeal to working-and middle class voters, who the Democrats will likely say have been abandoned by the president, despite Trump’s campaign pledges.”
Rep. Kennedy, whose political profile has been relatively low key considering his lineage, is the great-nephew of President Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy, grandson Robert Kennedy, and is the son of former Congressman Joseph Kennedy, a prominent figure during his congressional years when it came to issues of Irish American concern.
One of those issues is immigration and if President Trump uses his State of the Union speech as an opportunity to lay out details of his already announced plan to reshape the nation’s immigration policies, it would be expected that Congressman Kennedy will respond with his party’s views on future policy.
Said Kennedy in a statement: “From health care to economic justice to civil rights, the Democratic agenda stands in powerful contrast to President Trump's broken promises to American families. Our vision for this union is guided by a simple belief that equality and economic dignity should be afforded to every American. I'm honored to have been chosen by Leader Pelosi and Leader Schumer to deliver our party's response."
Rep. Kennedy is the second in his family to deliver a response to the State of the Union. Ted Kennedy did so in 1982 when Ronald Reagan was president.
