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Joseph Kearns Goodwin (born October 14, 1978) is a candidate for the 3rd Middlesex District State Senate seat in Massachusetts. He is a former U.S. Army Captain, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was awarded a Bronze Star for exemplary service in combat. Between military tours, Goodwin was selected to join the General Electric Company’s elite Junior Officer Leadership Program (JOLP).

Currently Goodwin is a second-year student at Harvard Law School. He is the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and presidential advisor and speechwriter Richard N. Goodwin.

Early Life and Education
Joseph Goodwin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in the nearby suburb of Concord, where attended the local public schools, graduating from Concord-Carlisle High School. He is a 2001 Cum Laude graduate of Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Literature.

Career and awards
After graduating from Harvard College in the spring of 2001, Goodwin planned to take a job as a political consultant in Washington, D.C. But the day after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Goodwin enlisted in the U.S. Army. He arrived in Iraq in Spring 2003, and served as a combat arms platoon leader with the Army’s 1st Armored Division and was awarded the Bronze Star. After more than four years on active duty, Goodwin moved to Schenectady, NY, after being recruited as a member of the General Electric Company’s elite Junior Officer Leadership Program (JOLP). He worked in both the finance and manufacturing divisions of GE’s Turbine and Wind Energy businesses. In Summer 2008, Goodwin moved to New York City to serve as an internal consultant for GE’s NBC Universal division before being recalled to the Army to serve in Afghanistan. In his second tour of duty, Goodwin was charged with cultivating civilian contacts in Afghan cities and towns on behalf of NATO Commander General David McKiernan and his director of strategic communications, Brigadier General Michael Ryan.

Goodwin has written extensively about his service in the U.S. Army and the military’s efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, including opinion pieces published in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Boston Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press, PBS’s Charlie Rose, MSNBC’s Morning Joe and the BBCto discuss his Army experiences.

Personal Life
Goodwin married Victoria Bonney in October 2011; the two met while working on a 90-day special election to fill the U.S. Senate Seat formerly held by Edward M. Kennedy. Goodwin is the youngest of three brothers. The eldest, Richard, is a filmmaker whose latest short film, "For Rent" earned a Coup De Coeur distinction at the Cannes Short Film Corner, where it screened in May 2011. Michael is a high-school social studies teacher and founder of Rivers and Revolutions, a tuition-free interdisciplinary summer program designed to teach high school students the relationship between literature, history, science, mathematics, philosophy, and the arts.