Biden to name Joe Kennedy III as economic envoy to Northern Ireland

President Biden will tap former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III as his special envoy to Northern Ireland, making him the third member of the Democratic dynasty to join the president’s diplomatic corps.

The 42-year-old grandson of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy served four terms in Congress, but left electoral politics in 2021 after losing a bruising Senate primary to incumbent Sen. Ed Markey — and suffering widespread mockery for appearing to drool throughout a much-touted national speech rebutting then-President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.

As envoy, Kennedy will focus on hot-button economic issues as the Brexit-triggered tug-of-war over Northern Ireland continues to sour relations between Great Britain and the European Union.

“He will be very much focused on advancing US economic engagement and people-to-people ties,” an administration official told the Wall Street Journal.

Kennedy’s cousin Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, serves as Biden’s ambassador to Australia, while Victoria Kennedy, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s widow, is the US ambassador to Austria.

The family’s patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1938 to 1940.

The post of Northern Ireland envoy has been vacant since January 2021, when Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, resigned from his administration.