when did kennedy get elected?
John F. Kennedy 1961 presidential inauguration
entailment
 Kennedy entered the Senate in a November 1962 special election to fill the seat once held by his brother John . He was elected to a full six @-@ year term in 1964 and was reelected seven more times . The Chappaquiddick incident on July 18 , 1969 , resulted in the death of his automobile passenger , Mary Jo Kopechne . Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident ; the incident and its aftermath hindered his chances of ever becoming President of the United States . His one attempt , in the 1980 presidential election , resulted in a Democratic primary campaign loss to incumbent President Jimmy Carter . 

entailment
 Kennedy was again much talked about as a contender in the 1976 U.S. presidential election , with no strong front @-@ runners among the other possible Democratic candidates . But Kennedy 's concerns about his family were strong , and Chappaquiddick was still in the news , with The Boston Globe , The New York Times Magazine , and Time magazine all reassessing the incident and raising doubts about Kennedy 's version of events . In September 1974 , Kennedy announced that for family reasons he would not run in the 1976 election , declaring that his decision was " firm , final , and unconditional . " The eventual Democratic nominee , Jimmy Carter , built little by way of a relationship with Kennedy during his primary campaign , the convention , or the general election campaign . Kennedy was up for Senate re @-@ election in 1976 ; he defeated a primary challenger angry at his support for school busing in Boston , then won the general election with 69 percent of the vote . 

entailment
 Kennedy was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1959 . In 1960 , John ran for President of the United States and Ted managed his campaign in the Western states . Ted learned to fly and during the Democratic primary campaign he barnstormed around the western states , meeting with delegates and bonding with them by trying his hand at ski jumping and bronc riding . The seven weeks he spent in Wisconsin helped his brother win the first contested primary of the season there and a similar time spent in Wyoming was rewarded when a unanimous vote from that state 's delegates put his brother over the top at the 1960 Democratic National Convention . 

contradiction
 Kennedy 's staff drew up detailed plans for a candidacy in the 1984 presidential election that he considered , but with his family opposed and his realization that the Senate was a fully satisfying career , in late 1982 he decided not to run . Kennedy campaigned hard for Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale and defended vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro from criticism over being a pro @-@ choice Catholic , but Reagan was re @-@ elected in a landslide . 

neutral
 Kennedy easily won re @-@ election to another term in the Senate in November 1970 with 62 percent of the vote against underfunded Republican candidate Josiah Spaulding , although he received about 500 @,@ 000 fewer votes than in 1964 . 
