For the fourth time in sixty-four years, a Kennedy is running to be President of the United States. This fall, Robert Kennedy Jr. will be on the ballot in fifteen states running as a third-party candidate. He claims he will be in all fifty states.

The Kennedy family is a modern American political dynasty. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. was the patriarch of the family and a self-made millionaire who served in various appointed positions under FDR in the thirties including Ambassador to Great Britain. He had ambitions to run for the presidency, but his isolationist pre-World War II ideas ran afoul of the political mainstream when the country went to war. His oldest son and namesake died in a combat mission in 1944.

John F. Kennedy became a war hero saving members of his crew after his ship, a Japanese destroyer rammed PT -109. He was elected to Congress in 1946, the US senate in 1952, and unsuccessfully sought the vice-presidential nomination in 1956. In 1960, he ran an unprecedented race for the Democratic nomination against better-known rivals winning primary election in key states. In November, he narrowly edged out Vice-President Richard Nixon to become the thirty-fifth president of the United States.

Robert F. Kennedy had managed his brother’s 1960 presidential campaign and served as his attorney general. In 1964, he was elected to the United Senate from New York. After Eugene McCarthy had already challenged President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 and weakened him in the New Hampshire primary. Bobby entered the race and won several primaries. In April of 1968, he campaigned in my hometown of Michigan City, Indiana and I saw him speak. After winning the California primary in June of 1968, he was assassinated.

Edward “Ted” Kennedy ran his brother’s campaign in the western US in 1960 and was elected to the US Senate in his own right in 1962. He challenged incumbent Democratic President in 1980, the only time he sought the presidency. Carter won a bitter fight for the nomination and lost to Ronald Regan that fall. Ted Kennedy served forty-seven years in the United States Senate with distinction, his political home for nearly a half-century.

Now in 2024, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running as an independent candidate for president. If you say his name into your handheld computer (phone) it describes him as “an American politician, environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, and conspiracy theorist. He is seventy years old and has never been elected to political office.”

RFK Jr. was a Democrat, now an Independent, and political experts are not sure if his candidacy will pull more votes from Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. As of August 11, polls have him between 5-10 percent nationally, Rasmussen Reports at just 3%.

We shall see….

Oh yes, I like to put photos at the top, seems like the thing to do. I considered (sarcastically) putting a photo of Mr. Kennedy shirtless, and many are out there. He’s in great shape, but I find their public existence, and contest, disturbing. Not everyone understands my sense of humor.