Biden nominates Victoria Kennedy for Austria ambassadorship

]

FILE - In this May 8, 2014, file photo David Cohen, Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation testifies during the House Judiciary Subcommittee on… FILE - In this May 8, 2014, file photo David Cohen, Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation testifies during the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law oversight hearing on the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Joe Biden is nominating Cohen to serve as his ambassador to Canada, according to the White House. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - In this May 7, 2017 file photo, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, arrives at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library a… FILE - In this May 7, 2017 file photo, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, arrives at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum before the 2017 Profile in Courage award ceremonies. President Joe Biden is nominating the widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy to serve as his ambassador to Austria Kennedy, an attorney and a gun control advocate, came to know Biden during the years he served with her husband in the Senate. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is nominating Victoria Kennedy, an attorney and the widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy, to serve as his ambassador to Austria. He’s naming a top political fundraiser — Comcast executive David Cohen – to serve as his ambassador to Canada, the White House said Wednesday.

Kennedy, a gun control advocate, came to know the president during the years when Biden served with her husband in the Senate.

She is the president of the board and co-founder of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, a non-partisan nonprofit that educates the public about the U.S. Senate, and also leads the education committee of the board of trustees for the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Kennedy has also served on the boards of gun control advocacy groups, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C., as well as Stop Handgun Violence in Boston. She founded the group Common Sense about Kids and Guns, aimed at reducing guns deaths and injuries to children.

“My parents and grandparents taught us through the example of their own lives how important it is to serve and give back,” Kennedy said in a statement. “And my late husband, and his extended family, embodied the noblest qualities of service to country. I am humbled by the confidence the President has placed in me, and if confirmed, I look forward to being able to serve my country as ambassador to Austria.”

Biden is also giving serious consideration to another member of the Kennedy family.

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy who served as ambassador to Japan during the Obama administration, is being weighed as a contender to serve in a high-profile ambassadorial role – perhaps in Asia or Australia, according to a person familiar with the deliberations who was not authorized to comment.

Cohen is a senior executive at the cable company Comcast, and previously served as chief of staff to another powerful Biden ally, Ed Rendell, when Rendell was the mayor of Philadelphia. He was an early backer of the president’s third White House run, hosting Biden’s first 2020 presidential campaign fundraiser.

Cohen said in a statement that, if confirmed, he would look to grow “the important relationship” as both nations look to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. Canada announced this week that it would ease restrictions at the border next month, allowing U.S. citizens and permanent residents living in the United States who are fully vaccinated to enter without quarantining.

The U.S. government on Wednesday extended the closure of the land borders with Canada and Mexico to non-essential travelers until at least Aug. 21.

The White House also announced that Biden was nominating Jamie Harpootlian, a South Carolina attorney and influential Democrat in the early primary state, to serve as his ambassador to Slovenia. She is married to another powerful South Carolina Democratic operative and Biden ally, state Sen. Dick Harpootlian.

The president’s victory in the South Carolina primary turned out to be the turning point for a campaign that struggled out of the gate.

Biden nominates Victoria Kennedy to be ambassador to Austria

]

It became clear Kennedy was under consideration for the post after the Austria Press Agency reported last week that she had received the approval of the office of Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen. At the time, the nation’s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, called the choice an “honor” for Austria, according to the Associated Press.

Kennedy, 67, is a senior counsel at the international law firm Greenberg Traurig and a longtime friend of Biden. If confirmed by the Senate, she would extend the Kennedy family’s diplomatic tradition, which began with its patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who served as ambassador to the United Kingdom.

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Wednesday nominated Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of the late senator Edward M. Kennedy, to be US ambassador to Austria.

Kennedy said she was honored to be nominated.

“My parents and grandparents taught us through the example of their own lives how important it is to serve and give back. And my late husband, and his extended family, embodied the noblest qualities of service to country,” Kennedy said in a statement. “I am humbled by the confidence the president has placed in me, and if confirmed, I look forward to being able to serve my country as ambassador to Austria.”

Several friends and co-workers said Kennedy had traits that would make her an excellent ambassador.

“The combination of her intelligence and her temperament and her worldview make her very well-suited for a diplomatic role,” said Christine Heenan, a senior partner at the Boston biotech Flagship Pioneering. “She’s a homework person — she really likes to study and prepare — but she’s also one of those people who’s quite facile at being extemporaneous and dealing with curveballs.”

Bob Sherman, a senior counsel at Greenberg Traurig who has worked closely with Kennedy, described her as a “top-notch corporate lawyer” with great judgment. Kennedy’s connection with Biden, who has said she is like a sister to him, also will help her in Vienna, said Sherman, who served as US ambassador to Portugal from 2014 to 2017.

“It matters a lot to the country where you’re being sent that you’re perceived to have a strong relationship with the president and she has a strong relationship with President Biden,” he said.

Biden was close to Edward Kennedy, with whom he served in the Senate for 36 years, and spoke at his 2009 memorial service. Biden credited his initial election to the US Senate from Delaware in 1972 to a last-minute campaign appearance by Kennedy. A few weeks later, after an auto accident killed Biden’s wife and young daughter, Kennedy convinced him not to give up his Senate seat and became like “an older brother” to him in Washington.

Victoria “Vicki” Reggie was raised in Crowley, La., in a family that was influential in Democratic politics and had a connection to the Kennedys. Her father, Edmund Reggie, was a city judge credited with delivering the state’s delegation to John F. Kennedy at the Democratic convention in his first bid for the White House in 1956, leading to a bond between the two families.

After graduating from Tulane Law School she worked as an attorney in Chicago and then Washington, D.C., where she met Kennedy. They were married in 1992, the second marriage for both of them.

Vicki Kennedy developed a warm relationship with Biden and she endorsed him for president just before the Massachusetts Democratic primary in March 2020.

After Biden’s son Beau died in 2015, Kennedy wrote to Biden and included a letter that Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. had written to a friend about losing his son during World War II. Its message: To grieve a lost loved one, devote your life to the pursuits that would have mattered most to that person.

Biden told the Globe in 2017 it was one of the most treasured condolences he received after losing his son and he thought of Kennedy “like a sister.”

“I think that Vicki’s advice to me when she sent that letter is the explanation for why she’s doing what she’s doing,” Biden said. “There is solace and strength and a sense of peace that comes with continuing to do what Teddy would be doing today.”

After her husband’s death, Kennedy focused on shaping the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, a Boston civic education organization that houses a full-scale replica of the US Senate. In 2015, Kennedy returned to her legal career after a 20-year hiatus, working in the corporate practice group of Greenberg Traurig and splitting time between its Boston and Washington offices.

She has dedicated herself to civic engagement alongside her work as a lawyer, serving on the boards of charities as well as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In 2014, Barack Obama nominated her to serve on the board of governors for the US Postal Service but she never received a confirmation vote amid a broader dispute in the Senate over the makeup of the board.

“She is a really special woman who cares deeply about the world around us and how we engage with one another,” said Kennedy Center president Deborah F. Rutter. “She doesn’t have Kennedy blood, as it were, but she certainly carries that Kennedy ideal of service for her country and for her others.”

On Wednesday, the White House also announced Biden nominated David Cohen, a Comcast executive, to be ambassador to Canada, and Jamie Harpootlian, a South Carolina lawyer, to be ambassador to Slovenia.

Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera. Emma Platoff can be reached at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emmaplatoff.

Victoria Kennedy nominated for Austria ambassadorship by Biden

]

Hide Transcript Show Transcript

NEW ON 5: THE WIDOW OF SEN. TED KENNEDY COULD SOON CARRY ON THE KENNEDY FAMILY’S DIPLOMATIC TRADITION. PRESIDENT BIDEN TODAY ANNOUNCED HIS INTENT TO NOMINATE VICTORIA REGGIE KENNEDY TO BE U.S. AMBASSORAD TO AUSTRIA. A LONGTIME FRIEND OF THE PRESIDENT, THE 67-YEAR-OLD IS SENIOR COUNSEL AT THE INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM GREENBERG TRAURIG. SHE’S ALSO PRESIDENT O

Advertisement Victoria Kennedy, widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy, nominated for Austria ambassadorship Share Copy Link Copy

President Joe Biden intends to nominate the widow of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, of Massachusetts, to serve as his ambassador to Austria.White House officials announced Wednesday that attorney Victoria Reggie Kennedy is the nominee for Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Austria.“Vicki” Kennedy, 67, is senior counsel in the corporate and securities practice group at Greenberg Traurig LLP, a firm based in Boston and Washington, D.C.She is also president of the board and co-founder of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, a nonpartisan nonprofit in Boston that educates the public about the U.S. Senate and inspires leadership and active citizenship.Kennedy chairs the education committee of the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C., and is on the board of other nonprofit and civic organizations.She is a gun safety advocate and was a long-time member of the board of trustees of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, and has served on the board of Stop Handgun Violence in Boston. She founded Common Sense about Kids and Guns, an advocacy group that aims to reduce gun deaths and injuries to children.“My parents and grandparents taught us through the example of their own lives how important it is to serve and give back,” Kennedy said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. “And my late husband, and his extended family, embodied the noblest qualities of service to country. I am humbled by the confidence the President has placed in me, and if confirmed, I look forward to being able to serve my country as ambassador to Austria.”The AP is also reporting that Biden is also giving serious consideration to another member of the Kennedy family for an ambassadorship.Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy who served as ambassador to Japan during the Obama administration, is being weighed as a contender to serve in a high-profile ambassadorial role – perhaps in Asia or Australia, according to a person familiar with the deliberations who was not authorized to comment.On June 23, Biden nominated Massachusetts House Majority Leader Claire Cronin, the second-ranking Democrat in the state’s House of Representatives, to become the next ambassador to Ireland.In addition to Vicki Kennedy’s nomination, White House officials also announced Wednesday that Biden will nominate Comcast executive David Cohen to serve as his ambassador to Canada and Jamie Harpootlian, a South Carolina attorney and influential Democrat in the early primary state, to serve as his ambassador to Slovenia.The Associated Press contributed to this report.