BOSTON – Peggy Kerry has been getting her little brother involved in causes for a long time, going back to Adlai Stevenson's (search) first run for president.
"I was in the fifth grade and he was in the third grade and we were out selling Stevenson campaign buttons," she recalled Wednesday on the eve of John Kerry's (search ) nomination for president. "I didn't make him do it. I think he wanted to come along."
More than 50 years later, Peggy Kerry is a delegate from New York, ready to cast her vote to nominate the senator from Massachusetts.
"It's pretty incredible," she said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Suddenly I remember it's my brother and I have to pinch myself."
Peggy Kerry campaigns for brother John when she isn't working for the U.S. mission at the United Nations or taking care of the 6-year-old child she and her husband adopted.
Kerry's younger siblings, sister Diana and brother Cameron, are more active in the campaign and both are members of the Massachusetts delegation. Occasionally, though, Peggy gives John a sisterly nudge — advising him not to speak too long and to mention women more often.
When Peggy Kerry moved to New York City in 1967 she quickly became involved in liberal politics and the Vietnam anti-war movement. She later volunteered John, then a decorated combat veteran stationed at the Brooklyn Naval Yard (search ), to take an anti-war leader around the state. Soon, he became a leading spokesman for the cause.
In Boston, Peggy has been on a whirlwind schedule of receptions and parties. She said she hasn't really thought much about how her life might change if her brother wins in November.
"I might get to sleep in the White House," she said. "And I'd like to attend a few state dinners."
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