Doggone-It is a small doggie day-care and grooming salon in Needham, Mass., a quiet suburb of Boston. It caters to area residents and their pets, but on a hot morning in July, a young man in a dark suit, followed by an equally young and well-dressed entourage, entered the store and sent Doggone-It’s half-dozen dogs into a frenzy. Joseph P. Kennedy III introduced himself to the store’s owners and explained, over the din of barking dogs, that he was running for Congress. Kennedy smiled and asked the women how their day was going (“Good!”), if they had any concerns that he should know about (“Don’t think so!”) and if they would please e-mail him if they ever did (“Sure!”).


As he leaned down to pet the dogs, the women of Doggone-It exchanged quiet but unmistakable looks of the “Oh, my God, I just met a Kennedy” variety. Joe, after all, is the 31-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy and the son of Joe Kennedy II, a six-term Massachusetts congressman. (His great-uncles include John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy.) He is handsome, too, but not quite in a conventional Kennedy way. He has bright orange hair that sometimes curls into a forelock, blue-green eyes and pale freckles. He has been compared to Conan O’Brien (besides being a redhead, he’s also fairly tall), but looks more like a mash-up of Prince Harry, the “Hunger Games” actor Josh Hutcherson and a bird.


As he made the rounds in Doggone-It, Kennedy leaned awkwardly into a showcase, straining to hear over the barking of the dogs, who were now running through a pool of their own urine that spread across the patched linoleum floor. “Oops,” one of the women said, crouching down to soak it up with a paper towel. Kennedy either didn’t notice or pretended not to as he asked about their business and the state of things in Needham. One by one, his entourage — press people and an “advance” guy, among others — slipped outside to wait where it was quieter. Kennedy finally emerged. “Whoa,” he said, a little shellshocked. This was the sixth stop on his trip through town. Next was a candy store, a barber, a knitting store and an outdoor cafe, which was essentially a few tables on the sidewalk, where he held court with local officials.


It’s safe to say that the recent past has not been a glorious one for the extended Kennedy clan. When Patrick J. Kennedy relinquished his Rhode Island House seat in early 2011, it marked the first time since 1947 that there was no Kennedy in national elected office. Then, in May, Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., hanged herself in her Westchester County barn. Because of a public fight over funeral arrangements, some members of the Richardson family did not attend the service. Weeks later, Kerry Kennedy, the ex-wife of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, ran into a tractor-trailer on an Interstate highway in New York and continued driving to the next exit despite a flat passenger-side tire. Then Conor Kennedy, the 18-year-old son of Robert Kennedy Jr. and Mary Richardson Kennedy, began a romance with the pop star Taylor Swift, which was relentlessly covered by the tabloids. Swift reportedly bought a $4.9 million home near the Kennedys’ Hyannis Port compound.


By comparison, Joe Kennedy spent the summer traveling in Massachusetts’ newly redrawn Fourth District — the one that Barney Frank has represented since 1981, a year after Kennedy was born. Last winter, after Frank announced his retirement, Kennedy moved into the district and soon began his campaign. During the past few months, he has visited senior citizens at bingo night in Taunton, eaten gluten-free cupcakes at a bakery in Millis, cheered at a tractor pull in Rehoboth and greeted Green Line commuters. Through individual donations and about $200,000 from various PACs, he has taken in nearly $3 million, about six times the total of his nearest opponent. He clinched the Democratic nomination on Sept. 6.