The 42 year-old politician, who hails from the Kennedy political dynasty, will fill the post which has been vacant since January 2021 when Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney stepped down from the role.
It comes at a sensitive time for Northern Ireland, which has been without a sitting executive since February, and has found itself at the center of a standoff between the U.K. and the EU over Brexit trade arrangements.
Kennedy is the grandson of former U.S. Senator and Attorney General Robert Kennedy who was assassinated in 1968. He represented Massachusetts in Congress between 2013 and 2021. He chose not to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2020 elections, instead challenging Senator Ed Markey for his seat in the U.S. Senate. But in a blow to his political career, he lost the Democratic primary contest to Markey, paving the way for his exit from frontline politics.
Two officials told POLITICO that an announcement is imminent from the White House. From January, new rules mean that all special envoy roles must be approved by the U.S. Senate — a procedural requirement that could delay any appointment.
[Looks like an attempt to re-inflate the Kennedy dynasty by Biden and his team. It’s tough to see any other qualification Kennedy has for this sensitive posting other than his name. — Ed]
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