John Kerry

John Kerry
Official portrait, 2021
1st United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate
In office January 20, 2021 – March 6, 2024
President	Joe Biden
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	John Podesta
68th United States Secretary of State
In office February 1, 2013 – January 20, 2017
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	William Joseph Burns Wendy Sherman (acting) Tony Blinken
Preceded by	Hillary Clinton
Succeeded by	Rex Tillerson
Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
In office January 6, 2009 – February 1, 2013
Preceded by	Joe Biden
Succeeded by	Bob Menendez
Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee
In office January 4, 2007 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Olympia Snowe
Succeeded by	Mary Landrieu
In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Kit Bond
Succeeded by	Olympia Snowe
United States Senator from Massachusetts
In office January 2, 1985 – February 1, 2013
Preceded by	Paul Tsongas
Succeeded by	Mo Cowan
66th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
In office March 6, 1983 – January 2, 1985
Governor	Michael Dukakis
Preceded by	Thomas P. O'Neill III
Succeeded by	Evelyn Murphy
Personal details
Born	John Forbes Kerry (1943-12-11) December 11, 1943 (age 80) Aurora, Colorado, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Julia Thorne ​ ​ (m. 1970; div. 1988)​ Teresa Heinz ​ (m. 1995)​
Children	Alexandra Vanessa
Parents	Richard Kerry Rosemary Forbes
Relatives	Forbes family
Education	Yale University (BA) Boston College (JD)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Navy
Years of service	1966–1978
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	USS Gridley (DLG-21) Coastal Squadron 1
Commands	PCF-44 PCF-94
Battles/wars	Vietnam War (WIA) Operation Sealords
Awards	Silver Star Bronze Star (with valor) Purple Heart (3) Combat Action Ribbon

John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943^[1]) is an American politician. He is a former United States Secretary of State and former Senator from Massachusetts and the Democratic nominee for president in 2004. He lost to George W. Bush. He has served in the Senate for 23 years and has also served as the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts under Michael Dukakis.

In November 2020, then President-elect Joe Biden named Kerry as the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.^[2] He resigned in early 2024 to help with Biden's re-election campaign.

Kerry was born on December 11, 1943 at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado. His father was an officer in the United States Army Air Force. He studied at Yale University and at Boston College Law school. Kerry was raised as a Roman Catholic by his Catholic father and Episcopalian mother.^[3]

It was discovered in 2003 by Felix Gundacker, a genealogist^[4] working with The Boston Globe, that Kerry's paternal grandparents, who had been born Jewish, as "Fritz Kohn" and "Ida Löwe", in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, changed their names to "Frederick and Ida Kerry" in 1900 and converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism in 1901^[5][6]

In 1968 and 1969, Kerry was a United States Navy officer in Vietnam. During the 2012 Obama reelection campaign, Kerry participated in one on one debate prep with the president, impersonating the Republican candidate Mitt Romney.^[7]

Kerry's vice presidential candidate was John Edwards. The ticket lost the election to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. One of the reasons Kerry lost is because people said he was an elitist (he did not understand most Americans) and also because a group called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" attacked his service in Vietnam.

In November 2006, Kerry once apologizes after saying that college students needed to study hard or else they would "get stuck in Iraq."^[8]

On December 21, 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.^[9][10][11] The committee said yes on making Kerry the new Secretary of State. Kerry won confirmation by the Senate on January 29, 2012 by a 94-3 vote. He assumed the office of Secretary of State on February 1, 2013.^[12][13]

In a letter to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Kerry announced his resignation from the Senate effective February 1.^[14] Kerry was sworn in as Secretary of State on February 1, 2013.^[15]

On November 23, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden announced that Kerry will serve as the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate in the Biden administration.^[2] He was sworn in on January 20, 2021, the same day Biden was inaugurated as president.

On January 13, 2024, at least three sources close to Kerry revealed that he would step down as U.S. climate envoy by the upcoming spring to help with Biden's re-election campaign.^[16] He told the Financial Times he planned to stay active in the climate finance space.^[17] He officially resigned from his position on March 6, 2024.

He was married to Julia from 1970 until they divorced in 1988. Then he was married to Teresa Heinz since 1995. He has two children and three step-children. He now lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Kerry and his former competitor George W. Bush share an ancestor on Kerry's mother's side and Bush's father's side from the 1600s.^[18]

Kerry is 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall,^[19] enjoys surfing and windsurfing, as well as ice hockey, hunting and playing bass guitar. According to an interview he gave to Rolling Stone magazine in 2004, Kerry's favorite album is Abbey Road and he is a fan of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, as well as of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Buffett. He never liked heavy metal.^[20] During his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry used Bruce Springsteen's "No Surrender" as one of his campaign songs. Later he would adopt U2's "Beautiful Day" as his official campaign song.

In 2003, Kerry was diagnosed with and successfully treated for prostate cancer.^[21]

Wikisource has original works written by or about:
John Kerry

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Kerry

Media related to John Kerry at Wikimedia Commons

• JohnKerry.com Archived 2017-01-04 at the Wayback Machine—John Kerry's political web site
• johnkerry. com/about/john_kerry/military_records.html Kerry's military records—from JohnKerry.com via the Internet Archive
• John Kerry for Senate Archived 2020-10-28 at the Wayback Machine-Official 2008 senatorial re-election campaign website
• John Kerry's Online Office Archived 2010-05-05 at the Wayback Machine—Official senatorial site
• Campaign for Our Country Archived 2010-01-02 at the Wayback Machine—PAC led by Kerry
• John Kerry's letter to his parents about Richard Pershing's death—1968.
• Statement on behalf of Vietnam Veterans Against the War—April 1971.
• John Kerry's Senate hearing testimony Archived 2005-04-17 at the Wayback Machine to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1971 (PDF file)
• John Kerry's complete 1971 statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from National Review
• Selections from John Kerry's 1971 statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Archived 2007-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
• The BCCI Affair, A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, December 1992
• Obama rally with John Kerry and Others MP3 on February 2, 2008 in Sacramento, CA
• Irish Catholic or Czech Jew? Archived 2013-03-29 at the Wayback Machine—Kerry's long lost Jewish ethnic ancestry
• Schanberg, Sydney H., When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A., The Village Voice, February 17, 2004
• Kranish, Michael, John Kerry: Candidate in the making, The Boston Globe, June 15, 2003
• Profile: John Kerry, Paul Reynolds, BBC News, November 5, 2004
• Frontline: the choice 2004—Thorough two-hour special comparing Kerry and Bush
• Researcher Alleges Potential Plagiarism in 11 Passages of Kerry's Writings