Joe Kennedy III wins US congressional primary

BOSTON (AP) — Joseph Kennedy III, the first of his famous political family's youngest generation to seek elective office, defeated two little-known Democrats in Thursday's primary in Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District.

Kennedy, 31, will face Republican Sean Bielat or Elizabeth Childs in the November election for the seat currently held by longtime liberal Democratic Rep. Barney Frank.

Kennedy is the son of Joseph P. Kennedy II, who represented the state's 8th Congressional District for six terms from 1987-1999, and the grandson of the late Robert F. Kennedy. A graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, the younger Kennedy served in the Peace Corps, worked as a prosecutor in Massachusetts and in 2006 co-managed with his twin brother Matt the final campaign of their great-uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died of cancer in 2009.

Unofficial early returns from Thursday's primary gave Kennedy around 90 percent of the vote. He was facing Herb Robinson, a software engineer and Rachel Brown, a follower of perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

Kennedy, with the acknowledged help of family connections, raised more than $3 million for his campaign through mid-August, more than any incumbent in the Massachusetts House delegation.

In a recent interview, Kennedy said he was proud of his family's legacy but determined to earn votes on his own. He also said that public office was not something he always aspired to and that his decision to run stemmed from life experiences and his desire to help people.

"I obviously grew up in politics for a long time, but this is not something I said at an early age, 'This is what I really want to go do,'" he said. "I have had a number of opportunities in my life where you see what happens when people are playing against a stacked deck."

The past two years marked the first time since the election of his great-uncle John F. Kennedy to the House in 1946 that a member of the Kennedy family had not served in elective office in Washington. John F. Kennedy went on to the U.S. Senate, and later to win the presidency in 1960.

Robert F. Kennedy served as his attorney general, was later a U.S. Senator for New York, and was assassinated in 1969 while campaigning for the presidency.

Joseph Kennedy III's victory came shortly after his cousin Caroline Kennedy addressed the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, telling delegates that the re-election of President Barack Obama is as important to the future of the country as the 1960 election of her father.