Campaign Diaries: The Front-Runner's Daughter

Vanessa Kerry at a campaign event in California. Amy Walters, NPR hide caption

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Amy Walters, NPR

Sen. John Kerry is currently campaigning in California ahead of next week's Super Tuesday primary. The front-runner's campaign is flush with fresh endorsements and an army of volunteers. One of them has known the senator for her entire life -- Kerry's youngest daughter, Vanessa.

The third-year medical student sat out her father's previous political campaigns for the Senate. "My first one I was seven," she says, "I think I fell asleep in the bathtub on election night."

But for his presidential bid, she decided it was time to get involved: "My father and I used to have family dinners every Sunday, and we sat down together for dinner and I just said, 'Dad, you know, I want to join your campaign.' His fork dropped, it was pretty funny."

As part of NPR's Campaign Diary series, Vanessa Kerry talks about a slightly less suave -- but endearing -- side of her dad.