Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy Biography

Edward Moore Kennedy was a powerful U.S. senator from Massachusetts for nearly five decades.

A member of the famous Kennedy clan, “Teddy” Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962 to fill the seat formerly held by his brother, John F. Kennedy, who had become president in 1961. Ted Kennedy was re-elected in 1964 and then again in 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006; he remained in office until his death in 2009.

A staunch Democrat, Ted Kennedy gained a reputation as a hard-working liberal on issues such as education and health care. His messy personal life, including many tales of drinking and womanizing, also made him a hot topic for gossip columnists. Ted Kennedy was the driver during a 1969 car accident in which a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned on Chappaquiddick Island, off the coast of Massachusetts. Kennedy fled the scene and was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident, yet his political career somehow survived.

Ted Kennedy ran for president in 1980 but was defeated for the Democratic nomination by incumbent president Jimmy Carter. In time, Kennedy became one of the Senate’s elder statesmen, known for his bipartisan friendships with conservative Senator Orrin Hatch and others. Kennedy had a seizure in May of 2008, after which he began treatment for a malignant brain tumor, but remained in the Senate and supported the candidacy of President Barack Obama that year.

Ted Kennedy lived to see Obama inaugurated, but died at his family home in Cape Cod in August of 2009. He was replaced temporarily by his longtime colleague Paul Kirk, but Republican Scott Brown won the seat in a special election in January of 2010. Brown then was defeated by Democrat Elizabeth Warren in the general elections of 2012.