U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) officially declared his senate bid on Saturday, making him the first Kennedy to run for the senate since Edward M. Kennedy did so in 1962. The 38-year-old made the announcement before a kickoff rally in East Boston where the Kennedy clan first arrived when they emigrated from Ireland more than a century ago. “I’m running because our country is at a moment of truth,” Kennedy told supporters in the email ahead of the announcement, according to the Associated Press. “Donald Trump has forced a long overdue reckoning in America. And how we respond will say everything about who we are.” The new senate candidate is the son of Joseph Kennedy who served in Congress and the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy who was attorney general in his brother John F. Kennedy’s cabinet and who was assassinated during his own presidential bid in 1968. He will face 73-year-old incumbent Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) in next year’s primary.
