Visit our new topic page about John Forbes Kerry

John Forbes Kerry

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008

John Forbes Kerry 1943-, U.S. politician, b. Denver, grad. Yale, 1966, Boston College law school, 1976. A decorated navy veteran who served two tours in Vietnam after graduating from Yale, Kerry won national notice as an outspoken opponent of the war when he returned stateside. Entering politics in his home state of Massachusetts, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1972. After graduating from law school, he served as an assistant district attorney (1977-82) before becoming lieutenant governor of Massachusetts (1983-85). In 1984, Kerry was elected to the U.S. Senate and since has been reelected three times. He chaired the Senate committee on small business from 2001 to 2003, and with Senator John McCain was instrumental in the the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo of Vietnam in the 1990s. An early favorite for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, he was eclipsed by Howard Dean in the months leading up to the caucuses and primaries. However, Kerry quickly emerged as the frontrunner once the voting began, securing enough delegates for the nomination by mid-March, and he subsequently chose North Carolina senator John Edwards as his running mate. After the most expensive campaign in U.S. history, the Democratic ticket lost to the incumbents, President G. W. Bush and Vice President Cheney , in the Nov., 2004, election. Kerry became chairman of the Senate small business and entrepreneurship committee in 2007.

Bibliography: See biography by M. Kranish et al. (2004); P. Alexander, The Candidate (2004).



Author not available, KERRY, JOHN FORBES., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press