US Representative Joseph Kennedy III, a politician with a very well-known name but relatively little prominence outside of his home state of Massachusetts, delivered the Democratic rebuttal to President Donald Trump's state of the union address on Tuesday night.

"Bullies may land a punch. They may leave a mark. But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match us strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future. Politicians can be cheered for the promises they make. Our country will be judged by the promises we keep," Kennedy said.

The speech was the highest profile appearance of the 37-year-old Kennedy's political career, following his 2016 talk at the Democratic National Convention, where he introduced U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2013.

Trump urged lawmakers on Tuesday to work toward bipartisan compromises, but pushed a hard line on immigration, insisting on a border wall and other concessions from Democrats as part of any deal to protect the children of illegal immigrants.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.