Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. was born on January 17, 1954, in Washington, D.C. He was the third child of Ethel and Robert Kennedy’s eleven children. His father was U.S. attorney general in the administration of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and his brother Robert was assassinated in 1968, when his son was fourteen years old.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. attended Harvard University, studying American history and literature; he graduated in 1976. He then went to the University of Virginia Law School, graduating in 1981. In 1987, he received a master’s degree in environmental law from Pace University Law School in New York.

Kennedy began his career working in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. In 1983, he was arrested for possession of heroin and sentenced to probation with community service. To fulfill his requirements, Kennedy began volunteering with environmental non-profits, Natural Resources Defense Council and Riverkeeper. He later became a senior attorney for Riverkeeper, working to enforce environmental regulations to clean up and prevent pollution in New York waterways. In 1999, he founded Waterkeeper, a non-profit focused on clean water around the world. During this period of his career, Kennedy gained a reputation as a successful environmental lawyer, winning cases against companies such as DuPont and Monsanto in class-action lawsuits.

In 2015, Kennedy became involved with the Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group that spread misinformation about childhood vaccines. He touted the link between vaccines and autism although scientific evidence had debunked any connection. Although he had been renowned for his environmental work, his anti-vaccine and anti-science views made Kennedy a controversial public figure.

In 2023, he announced that he would run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, but by October, he switched to running as an independent. In August 2024, Kennedy withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed Republican Donald Trump. After winning the election, President-elect Trump nominated Kennedy to be the secretary of Health and Human Services in November 2024.

Kennedy’s nomination was fraught as many critics rallied against appointing someone who dismissed science and did not believe in vaccines as secretary of many of the country’s public health organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health, which all fall under the Department of Health and Human Services. The U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed him by a vote of 52 to 48 on February 13, 2025, and he was sworn later that day.