Ted Kennedy Announces Candidacy; Faces McCormack in Senate Race

Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy '54 yesterday announced his long-expected decision to seek the nomination for U.S. Senator, throwing himself into one of the most significant and exciting political battles in Massachusetts history.

The President's youngest brother told a news conference jammed into the living room of his Boston home that he will oppose state Attorney-General Edward C McCormack in the Democratic primary because "I believe that I can win the election in November and be effective in representing the people of this Commonwealth in the Senate."

Kennedy said that the competition which will inevitably develop between him and McCormack, a favorite nephew of House Speaker John W. McCormack, will be "a healthy thing and will not hurt the Democratic Party."

"To deny Massachusetts the opportunity for selection would be unfair to the citizens of the State," Kennedy asserted. He claimed that "there is mutual admiration, closeness, and friendship" between the Speaker and the President and said that "the friction of the campaign will not hurt that relationship."

Speaker McCormack has announced that he "will campaign vigorously" in Massachusetts for his nephew, but Ted Kennedy said yesterday that the President and another brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, will not join his campaign "because they have enough to do in Washington."

President Kennedy told a news conference in Washington yesterday that "Ted is carrying this campaign on his own and will conduct it that way." The President did pledge to support whichever candidate is chosen in the primary next fall.

"The campaign must be fought on the issue of injecting new vitality and vigor into the State," Kennedy claimed. He insisted that he "is not running as a Kennedy," although that fact "has advantages."

"Any qualifications seem inadequate in the great struggle we face," Kennedy said, but he asserted that his knowledge "of the problems of the State and its people" is his most valuable asset. Kennedy managed his brother's Senate campaign in 1958.

Meanwhile, the McCormack campaign moved into high gear at the University yesterday as recruiting began for a Students For McCormack organization.