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01
He counts Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona as a close friend.
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02
He narrowly lost the 2004 presidential election, receiving 251 electoral votes to George W. Bush’s 286.
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03
On February 18, 1966, despite opposing the Vietnam War, Kerry enlisted in the Navy. He was wounded during his first combat experience on December 2, 1968 and received a Purple Heart. On February 20, 1969, he earned a second Purple Heart when shrapnel hit his left thigh. On February 28, 1969, his boat was hit by a B-40 rocket; he beached the boat, chased down the fleeing wounded Viet Cong who fired it, killed him, and returned with the rocket and its launcher, earning the Silver Star. On March 13, 1969, his boat detonated a mine and he was wounded; for that and rescuing Army Green Beret James Rassmann in the same incident, he received a third Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with Combat V.
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04
He lost to President George W. Bush by over 3.5 million votes on November 2, 2004.
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05
He served as U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from January 2, 1985 to February 1, 2013, and as 68th U.S. Secretary of State from February 1, 2013 to January 20, 2017.
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06
He is father to Alexandra Kerry born 1973 and Vanessa Kerry born 1976.
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07
He became a member of Yale University’s Skull and Bones secret society three years before George W. Bush joined the same group.
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08
He became the presumptive Democratic Nominee for President in 2004 after defeating North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Vermont Governor Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.
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09
He speaks French fluently in addition to some Norwegian.
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10
He is the 9th cousin twice removed of George W. Bush, his rival in the 2004 election; both are descended from Edmund Reade 1563-1623.
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11
He plays the guitar.
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12
He narrowly lost the state of Ohio by about 60,000 votes; had he won Ohio, he would have won the presidency.
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13
He underwent surgery for prostate cancer in February 2003.
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14
His favorite songs include No Surrender and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen, Hey Jude by The Beatles, and I Can’t Get No Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones.
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15
He served as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee.
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16
Because his father worked at the US Embassy in Oslo, Norway, Kerry lived in the Norwegian capital for a couple of years from age 13; he still remembers some Norwegian.
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17
He has a look-alike puppet in the French show Les Guignols de l’info 1988.
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18
He served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1983 to 1985.
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19
The liberal American politician is cousin to French politician Brice Lalonde former Minister of Environment and candidate in the 1981 presidential election of Génération Ecologie; their mothers Rosemary for Kerry, Fiona for Lalonde were sisters.
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20
He and his competition George W. Bush share an ancestor on Kerry’s mother’s side and Bush’s father’s side from the 1600s.
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21
He was born at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital where his father, Richard, a test pilot for the Army Air Corps, was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis.
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22
His second wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is the widow of Pennsylvania Senator Henry John Heinz III of the Heinz Foods fortune; their combined net worth is reportedly $199 – $839 million, making Kerry the wealthiest U.S. senator. They were introduced by Senator Heinz in 1990.
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23
His initials are JFK.
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24
He is the son of Rosemary Forbes Kerry, a nurse and social activist, and Richard Kerry, a foreign service officer and lawyer. His paternal grandparents, born Fritz Kohn and Ida Löwe, were Jewish emigrants from Central Europe Bennisch, Austria and Budapest, Hungary, respectively who converted to Catholicism. His mother was born in Paris, France, to American parents with deep New England roots, having English, Scottish, Northern Irish, Dutch, Welsh, and extremely remote French ancestry. His maternal grandparents were James Grant Forbes born in Shanghai, China, to American parents and Margaret Tyndal Winthrop born in Massachusetts.
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25
He announced John Edwards as his Vice Presidential Candidate in the 2004 Presidential Election.
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26
According to Harold Brooks-Baker, director of Burke’s Peerage, Kerry is distantly related to the Queen of England, the Queen of the Netherlands, the Queen of Denmark, and the King of Norway, as well as other European royal families; even the late Diana, Princess of Wales, was a distant relative.
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27
He played lacrosse when he was younger.
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28
He is of Welsh, French, Irish, Jewish, and possibly Norwegian descent.
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29
He played bass for a garage band called The Electras while in private school.
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30
He announced in January 2007 he would not be a candidate for president again in 2008, as previously speculated.
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31
He is stepfather to André Heintz, Chris Heinz and John Heinz IV.
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32
He was a member of the 2011 Debt Super Committee Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
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33
He had a brief romance with Catherine Oxenberg between his marriages.
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34
He was a classmate of American attorney and former F.B.I. director Robert Mueller at St. Paul’s School Concord, New Hampshire in 1962.
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35
He is one of seven Presidential candidates to later become U.S. Secretary of State after losing the election; the others are Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Lewis Cass, James Blaine, William Jennings Bryan and Charles Evans Hughes.
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36
He was the first U.S. Secretary of State to be both male and caucasian since Warren Christopher.
