In 1946 Kennedy had a choice of running for Lt. Governor or for Congress in th MA 11th district, he chose to run for Congress.
In 1952 he was either going to run for Governor or the Senate against Henry Cabot Lodge, it was up to the incumbent Governor, Paul Deever to choose which office to run for, if Deever chose to run for the Senate, then Kennedy was going to run for Governor, Deever chose to run for reelection instead and Kennedy faced off against Lodge.
The 1960 race for the Democratic Presidential nomination was interesting for the fact that with the exception of Adali Stevenson all the main contenders came from the Senate (Humphrey, Symington, Johnson, and Kennedy), so a Governor Kennedy might not have had the public exposure that he did as Sen. Kennedy.