And he has demonstrated a willingness to actively oppose Mr. Trump’s policies, as much of the Democratic Party’s liberal base is demanding.
Video of a House speech in which Mr. Kennedy chastised Speaker Paul D. Ryan for calling repeal of the Affordable Care Act an act of mercy (“This is not an act of mercy, it’s an act of malice,” Mr. Kennedy said) was viewed more than 10 million times on Facebook. (“Wow,” Howard Dean, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, wrote on Twitter. “This is a Kennedy who could be president. A must-watch.”)
Another in which Mr. Kennedy called for unity and compassion after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., last year drew 15 million views.
Democrats expect that Mr. Kennedy’s passion on these issues — along with his age and his family legacy of public service — will present a sharp contrast with Mr. Trump.
More broadly, the Democrats are showcasing Mr. Kennedy to the nation as a fresh face.
“The Democrats are trying to show that they are moving forward,” said Jeffrey Berry, a political scientist at Tufts University. “They want to show they’re not just the party of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. They’re turning the page.”
Mr. Kennedy has been steeped in politics since birth. In 1980, the year he and his twin brother, Matthew, were born, the family was focused on a presidential bid by his great-uncle, Senator Kennedy. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy II, was elected to Congress in 1986; his parents were divorced in 1991.
He and Matthew attended Stanford University, where Joseph earned the nickname “Milkman” from his lacrosse teammates because he did not drink alcohol. After graduating in 2003, he joined the Peace Corps, working in the Dominican Republic (he speaks Spanish) and returning in 2006 to help with Uncle Ted’s re-election campaign to the Senate.
Mr. Kennedy earned his law degree from Harvard in 2009 and joined the district attorney’s office on Cape Cod. He resigned in 2012 to run for the congressional seat being vacated by Barney Frank. He was re-elected to his third term in 2016 with 70 percent of the vote.
He met his future wife, Lauren Anne Birchfield, the co-founder of a nonprofit organization, Neighborhood Villages, in Ms. Warren’s law school class. They are the parents of Eleanor, 2, and James Matthew, who was born Dec. 20.
Mr. Kennedy is to deliver his speech Tuesday from Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Fall River, Mass., a former industrial center about 50 miles south of Boston. Fall River was built by immigrants and at one time was the leading textile center in America, nicknamed “Spindle City,” but its prosperity ebbed after World War I and never fully returned.
Despite this being deep blue Massachusetts, Mr. Trump captured a third of the vote in Fall River in 2016 and won several neighboring towns. The region is home to the sort of working-class voters the Democrats need if they are to regain control of Congress, and the party hopes Mr. Kennedy can deliver an economic message that will serve as a template for Democrats across the country to bring them back in the midterm elections.
The moment essentially marks Mr. Kennedy’s national debut. Mr. Berry, the political scientist, said that if all goes well, it could help him shift into a more prominent role.
“It’s been a slow process because he hasn’t been highly visible,” Mr. Berry said. “In a state of passionate liberals, Warren is the leader of the party. Kennedy has been in the shadows.”
Some of that may change on Tuesday night.
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