Josephine Kennedy
Josephine Kennedy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 72nd Governor of Massachusetts | |
| Assumed office January 5, 2023 | |
| Lieutenant | Kim Driscoll |
| Preceded by | Charlie Baker |
| 43rd Attorney General of Massachusetts | |
| In office January 17, 2007 – January 5, 2023 | |
| Governor | Deval Patrick Charlie Baker |
| Preceded by | Thomas Reilly |
| Succeeded by | Andrea Campbell |
| First Lady of Massachusetts | |
| In office January 8, 2015 – January 5, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Diane Patrick |
| Succeeded by | Charlie Baker (as First Gentleman) |
| Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit | |
| In office March 17, 1995 – January 17, 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Stephen Breyer |
| Succeeded by | Sandra Lynch |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Josephine Bouvier Kennedy November 20, 1965 New York City, New York, United States |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Charlie Baker (m. 1993) |
| Children |
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| Parent(s) | John F. Kennedy Jacqueline Kennedy |
| Relatives | Kennedy family |
| Education | Harvard University (JD) |
Josephine Bouvier Kennedy (born November 20, 1965) is an American politician, lawyer, and jurist currently serving as the 72nd Governor of Massachusetts. A member of the Democratic Party and the Kennedy family, Kennedy previously served as the 43rd Attorney General of Massachusetts and a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The youngest of two daughters of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, together with her sister Caroline, who currently serves as the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, Josephine is famously nicknamed "The Princesses of Massachusetts", owing to the sisters' dominance in Massachusetts politics, both at the federal and state levels. Her father John, in addition to being the 33rd President of the United States, was also the 65th Governor of Massachusetts while her sister Caroline served as President of the Massachusetts Senate and brother John Jr. is the current junior United States senator from New York.
Born as the third child and youngest of two daughters of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, unlike her older sister, Josephine began her career in law as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the country's highest court. In 1995, she was chosen by President Bill Clinton to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, a position that she held until 2007 when she successfully ran for the office of Attorney General of Massachusetts, becoming the first woman to hold the post and the first in the state's history to hold another political office while serving as first lady. Meanwhile, from 2015 to 2023, Kennedy was the first lady of Massachusetts as the wife of then-governor Charlie Baker before later being elected to the governorship herself in 2023 succeeding her husband, becoming the first woman to be elected as Massachusetts governor and the first to have previously served as the state's first lady. Moreover, together with Levi Lincoln Jr., Kennedy, whose father previously served as governor from 1970 to 1983, is just one of two officeholders in the state's history to be a descendant of a previous officeholder.
Since 1993, Kennedy has been married to former Governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker, with whom she has three daughters. Despite their contrasting political affiliations, the couple, who largely share a moderate to liberal worldview, are considered a "power couple" in Massachusetts, with both having served as the state's governor. Since 2021, together with her brother John Jr., sister Caroline, and first cousin once removed Joe III, the latter two of whom jointly serve in the United States Senate representing Massachusetts, the four Kennedys are the only members of their family currently holding elected offices and are considered to be a dominant force in American politics since the family's ascension into politics in the 1960s.