Patrick Kennedy

Political Figure

Patrick Kennedy has been a U.S. Representative from the state of Rhode Island since 1995. He is a member of the political Kennedy family: his father is Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and he is the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy. Patrick Kennedy was a 21-year-old college student when he was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1988. (He graduated from Providence College in 1991.) He was re-elected in 1990 and 1992, then made the leap to the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island's First District in the elections of 1994.

Extra credit: Patrick Kennedy is the son of Edward Kennedy and his first wife, Joan Bennett Kennedy. He has two siblings: Kara (b. 1960) and Edward, Jr. (b. 1961)... Patrick Kennedy entered the Mayo Clinic to be treated for addiction to prescription medicines in May of 2006, after crashing his Mustang convertible into a security barrier near the U.S. Capitol late at night. Kennedy denied he had been drinking, saying that he had suffered a bad reaction to the prescription drugs Phenergan and Ambien. Kennedy had been treated at the Mayo Clinic for the same addiction late in 2005. Kennedy had previously admitted to using cocaine while a teenager. In June of 2006 he pled guilty to driving under the influence of intoxicants and began a year of probation and court-ordered drug treatment.

Patrick Kennedy joins his father, uncles and grandfather Joseph Kennedy, Sr. in our loop on Clan Kennedy.