John Kerry made his first appearance in the Senate at the age of 27 in April 1971 when he testified before the Foreign Relations Committee as a spokesperson for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He made a lasting impression. Today, John Kerry is a senator from Massachusetts who serves on that same committee, and his name is mentioned frequently as a possible Democratic candidate for President in 2004.

Kerry was born into a well-to-do Boston family. When he was 13, he entered St. Paul's, a private school near Concord, New Hampshire, where he stayed until he enrolled at Yale University. When Kerry graduated from Yale, the Vietnam War was raging, and he entered the Navy, became a boat officer, and received a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Heart awards. Returning home from the war, he came to question American involvement in Vietnam and became active in the anti-war movement. His 1971 appearance before the Foreign Relations Committee gained Kerry overnight fame, with "60 Minutes" doing a profile and some newspaper columnists hinting that he was the next John Kennedy.

After attending law school from 1973 to 1976, John Kerry worked in the Middlesex County District Attorney's office and won his first public office in 1982 as Massachusetts' Lieutenant Governor. In 1984 he was elected to the Senate, where he began his fourth term of office with the 108th Congress in January 2003. In 2002, he was reelected with an overwhelming 81% of the votes cast. As part of his work on the Foreign Relations Committee, he joined Senator John McCain in the search for information about Vietnam Prisoners of War and soldiers Missing in Action. Kerry has also promoted reform in education, campaign finance, and environmental protection.

He is married to Teresa Heinz, the widow and heiress to a ketchup fortune of the late Senator John Heinz III, a Pennsylvania Republican. Senator Kerry has two daughters, and Teresa Heinz has three sons. The family currently resides in Boston.