New wave of Kennedys cresting across the country
CHICAGO — Chris Kennedy bares his teeth when he gets worked up, which was what happened in an interview when he described some of the outrage he says pushed him to the vanguard of a Kennedy family comeback in American politics.
“That’s treasonous. That’s treasonous,” Kennedy said, citing the FBI’s investigation of possible connections between President Trump’s campaign and Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
“If that happened, and if he touched any part of it, that’s treason. And I think you go to jail for treason,” said Kennedy, whose blue eyes, curly hair, and square face come directly from his father, the late Robert F. Kennedy.
This is the red meat that Chris Kennedy, the eighth of Robert and Ethel Kennedy’s 11 children, hopes the Democratic base wants as he launches his 2018 bid for governor in his adopted Illinois. He’s part of a new wave of Kennedys returning to the family business of national political leadership and using Trump as their foil.
His cousin Ted Kennedy Jr., son of the late Massachusetts senator, is mulling his own 2018 gubernatorial run in Connecticut, where he’s a member of the state Senate. Then there’s Joe Kennedy III, the third-term Massachusetts congressman, grabbing the national spotlight to help defeat Trump’s health care plan — prompting big questions about his next move.
