Ahmad Adnan
Ahmad Adnan (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 17th Congressional District. He lost in the Republican primary on March 3, 2020.
Adnan completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Ahmad Adnan earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Texas State University in 2000. His career experience includes working as a financial advisor, investment manager, and small business owner.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Texas' 17th Congressional District election, 2020
Texas' 17th Congressional District election, 2020 (March 3 Republican primary)
Texas' 17th Congressional District election, 2020 (March 3 Democratic primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Texas District 17
Pete Sessions defeated Rick Kennedy and Ted Brown in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 17 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Pete Sessions (R) | 55.9 | 171,390 |
 | Rick Kennedy (D)  | 40.9 | 125,565 | |
 | Ted Brown (L) | 3.2 | 9,918 | |
| Total votes: 306,873 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary runoff election
Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 17
Rick Kennedy defeated David Jaramillo in the Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 17 on July 14, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Rick Kennedy | 57.3 | 13,496 |
 | David Jaramillo | 42.7 | 10,054 | |
| Total votes: 23,550 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary runoff election
Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 17
Pete Sessions defeated Renee Swann in the Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 17 on July 14, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pete Sessions | 53.5 | 18,524 |
 | Renee Swann | 46.5 | 16,096 | |
| Total votes: 34,620 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 17
Rick Kennedy and David Jaramillo advanced to a runoff. They defeated William Foster III in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 17 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Rick Kennedy | 47.9 | 22,148 |
| ✔ | | David Jaramillo | 35.0 | 16,170 |
 | William Foster III | 17.1 | 7,887 | |
| Total votes: 46,205 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 17
The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 17 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pete Sessions | 31.6 | 21,667 |
| ✔ | | Renee Swann | 19.0 | 13,047 |
 | George Hindman | 18.1 | 12,405 | |
 | Elianor Vessali | 9.2 | 6,283 | |
| Scott Bland | 7.2 | 4,947 | ||
 | Trent Sutton | 5.2 | 3,593 | |
 | Todd Kent | 3.5 | 2,367 | |
 | Kristen Alamo Rowin | 1.7 | 1,183 | |
 | Laurie Godfrey McReynolds | 1.6 | 1,105 | |
| David Saucedo | 1.4 | 975 | ||
| Jeffrey Oppenheim (Unofficially withdrew) | 0.7 | 483 | ||
 | Ahmad Adnan | 0.7 | 477 | |
| Total votes: 68,532 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 17
Ted Brown advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 17 on March 21, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Ted Brown (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ahmad Adnan completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Adnan's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- I WANT THE STARTING PAY FOR TEACHERS TO BE $80,000 A YEAR. Our education system is falling behind other countries. We will never have the best education system if we do not attract and retain the best, highest-quality teachers, and we can only get the best if we actually pay them what they are worth. We need to pay them $80,000 a year starting. And, this will also help change the culture. In other cultures and societies, education is valued, teachers are respected. In the U.S. they're not. Paying teachers $80,000 per year will help change that paradigm to where people will respect the profession more, respect teachers more, and value education more.
- I WANT TO BAN MONEY IN POLITICS. Money in politics equals corruption in politics. If we want to drain the swamp, if we want to have government working for people rather than special interests, if we want to have lower prescription drug prices, if we want a simpler, better tax code, if we want to have less government spending, we have to ban money in politics.
- I WANT TO IMPLEMENT MASSIVE INFRASTRUCTURE AND HIGH VALUE RESEARCH. The American Society of civil engineers gave our infrastructure a grade of D plus. How is this acceptable? How is this exceptional? How can we have a growing economy when the backbone of commerce is broken? Furthermore, infrastructure spending creates high paying jobs. High paying jobs addresses income inequality as well as economic growth. ii. High value research creates industries and technology and jobs of the future. Look at what happened when the U.S. invested in the space race: new industries and jobs were created for decades and decades. Look at what happened when the U.S. invested in the Internet: new jobs and companies were created.
To fix our Dysfunctional Political System, I want to ban money in politics, because money in politics = corruption in politics, move election day to Saturday, and ban gerrymandering.
Please look at my website ahmadforoffice.com to see the GREATEST SOCIAL SECURITY SOLUTION in the history of the program!
Legalize, regulate, and tax cannabis to pay for the teacher raise.
To dramatically improve our health care system, I want to implement a MEDICARE IF YOU WANT IT PLAN. However, I do not believe in handouts. There would be a premium to pay. I want you to have the choice to enroll in MediCare if you can't get good health care anywhere else.
Immigration reform by securing the border and embracing legal immigration.
Economic growth through infrastrucure spending, high-value research, and population growth.
Tax reform through simplification. I want to eliminate the estate tax, and I want to increase the income tax bracket by 2% for everybody that makes over one million dollars a year.
Environment protection through economic growth. To protect the environment, I want the U.S. to beat other countries to the technologies of the future, like solar energy panels, battery storage, and a more efficient energy grid.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Adnan’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ | Education Starting Pay for Teachers $80,000 I WANT THE STARTING PAY FOR TEACHERS TO BE $80,000 A YEAR. Our education system is falling behind other countries. We will never have the best education system if we do not attract and retain the best, highest-quality teachers, and we can only get the best if we actually pay them what they are worth. We need to pay them $80,000 a year starting. And, this will also help change the culture. In other cultures and societies, education is valued, teachers are respected. In the U.S. they’re not. Paying teachers $80,000 per year will help change that paradigm to where people will respect the profession more, respect teachers more, and value education more. Wanna know how I’m gonna pay for the teacher raise? I WANT TO LEGALIZE, REGULATE, AND TAX CANNABIS. Just like what we do for cigarettes, that’s what I wanna do for cannabis. Also, we’ve got a boat-load of people sitting in jail and sitting in prison for having an ounce of cannabis. And, we have to spend $40,000 a year to keep them locked up for a non-violent criminal offense. That’s rediculous! We’re wasting all this money to keep them locked up, when we could actually use that money for things that help society get better. This war on drugs has been a failure on drugs. Alcohol is legal, cigarettes are legal. Opioids are legal. We have all sorts of stuff that is legal and available in our society that has much worse side effects than cannabis. It’s time for us to legalize cannabis. We can use the taxes on cannabis to help actually pay our teachers more. Our society is not going to fail because we have some people smoking weed; our society is gonna fail because we have a bunch of people that don’t know how to do 2 [plus] 2. Ban Money in Politics I WANT TO BAN MONEY IN POLITICS. Money in politics equals corruption in politics. If you want to drain the swamp, if you want to have government working for people rather than special interests, if you want to have lower prescription drug prices, if you want a simpler, better tax code, if you want to have less government spending, you have to ban money in politics. Health Care I believe in the free market and capitalism. However, I know that some folks, because they live in a rural part of the country or because they’re self-employed, may not have access to Health Insurance. And, I know that some folks have crappy health insurance coverage from work or have to pay for those expensive COBRA plans. So, for folks that don’t like the Health Insurance that they have or don’t have access to Health Insurance, I want them to be able to enroll in Medicare (a MEDICARE IF-YOU-WANT-IT PLAN). However, I do not believe in a government mandate or handouts. This plan is just a choice for you to compare with other providers, like Aetna, Humana, Blue Cross, etc. And, you can’t get this Medicare If-You-Want-It plan for free; there’s gonna be a premium. So, if you can’t get good health care anywhere else, you can enroll in this Medicare If-You-Want-It plan but you will have to pay the premium for this Medicare plan. I think this is a good centrist, middle-of-the-road approach. I think this solution is something that Republicans, conservatives, independents, Democrats, and liberals will like. Lower Prescription Drug Prices Everyone knows that you’re supposed to get discounts when you buy in bulk. Well, Medicare, the largest purchaser of prescription drugs in the U.S., is forbidden by law to negotiate drug prices. Did you know that you can go to the VA (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) and get a prescription drug for 40% less than with Medicare? The same drug! So, LET MEDICARE NEGOTIATE DRUG PRICES. This solution will save seniors, and the rest of the country, so much money on the drugs they buy. Tax Reform I want to dramatically simplify the tax system. In addition to the massive tax cut from fixing Social Security listed below, I want to update and simplify the tax code by eliminating the estate tax, commonly referred to as the death tax. A lot of people that are conservative and liberal alike will not like this tax elimination, because it is a tax cut for rich people. However I’m not done with my solution yet. In addition to eliminating the estate tax, I want to increase the income tax bracket by 2% for everybody that makes over one million dollars a year. Therefore, this plan doesn’t give a massive tax break to people that are wealthy. It actually still taxes people that are wealthy, because they’ll have to pay taxes by way of income, but eliminates an entire subset of the tax code which is the estate tax. The estate tax causes all sorts of problems and complexity for taxes and estate planning, and encourages people to use tax shelters and other tax gimmicks. So, my solution actually provides reform and simplification without really giving a cut to the wealthiest families. Keep in mind, it will be hard to update the tax code without getting rid of money in politics. Now, please see how I address income inequality… Income Inequality I want to address income inequality with four steps. First, as I mentioned before, I want to increase the tax bracket by 2% for everybody that makes over one million dollars a year. Second, I want to use the money raised by that 2% to help do infrastructure projects and high value research. Infrastructure spending creates high paying jobs. High paying jobs addresses income inequality. High value research creates industries and technology and jobs of the future. Look at what happened when the U.S. invested in the space race: all these new industries and jobs were created for decades and decades. Look at what happened when the U.S. invested in the Internet: all of these new jobs and companies were created. Third, to address income inequality, I want to improve the education system by paying teachers a starting salary of $80,000 per year. It’s hard to get a good paying job if you don’t have the education or the skills to do the job. Lastly, I want to lower the tax rate for Social Security from 6.2% to 3% and remove the taxable income cap, thereby, creating a massive tax cut for the poor, working class, and middle class. Economic Growth Massive infrastructure spending and high value research, as I mentioned above. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave our infrastructure a grade of D plus. Our airports suck, our bridges are a thousand years old, our drinking water sucks, our energy infrastructure and grid is outdated, our roads are pathetic. How is this acceptable? How is this exceptional? How can we have a growing economy when the backbone of commerce is broken? Economic growth is directly correlated with population growth. As countries get wealthier, their family size shrinks and population growth slows. The best way to keep a high rate of population growth for any wealthy country is through immigration. So, we should EMBRACE LEGAL IMMIGRATION. As I say below, secure the border, and embrace legal immigration. Environment My solution for the environment will satisfy liberals, conservatives, and independents alike. I know some people believe in global warming and some people do not. My solution below will be acceptable to both groups, and, frankly, both groups need to agree to pass legislation. First, I believe in global warming and that humans contribute. I know that people that don’t believe in global warming still care about the environment and don’t like pollution. So, let’s try to find common ground. People that don’t believe in global warming still believe in having a good economy, still want to have good paying jobs (just like the people that believe in global warming). Both groups want the U.S. to manufacture products and goods. Therefore, part of the infrastructure spending & high-value research that I outlined above for income inequality and economic growth should be used so that we can beat other countries to the technologies of the future, like solar energy panels, like battery storage, like a more efficient energy grid. China manufactures 60%-70% of the entire planet’s solar panels. Whether you believe in global warming or not, don’t you want the U.S. to have that market share? The largest wind farm just started in Africa; whose building the turbines? Denmark. Shouldn’t we be building them? Whether you believe in global warming or not, have you heard of electric vehicles? Where do you want the batteries for those cars made? I want it to be the U.S. Fix Our Dysfunctional Political System First, I want to BAN MONEY IN POLITICS. Because money in politics equals corruption in politics. Second, I want to MOVE ELECTION DAY FROM TUESDAY TO SATURDAY. Having election day still on Tuesday is so antiquated! Also, I want to have Election Day a national holiday. Many people can’t take time off from work to vote. The poor, the working class can’t afford to take a day off to vote. So, by having election day on Tuesday and not a national holiday, we have basically prohibited millions of fellow Americans from voting. Genius! (That’s sarcasm.) We always brag that we have the best democracy in the world, time for us to prove it by making it easier for people to actually vote and let their voice be heard! Third, I want to BAN GERRYMANDERING. Gerrymandering is a practice used by politicians and political parties to give them an election advantage by manipulating district boundaries. Sometimes, it’s referred to as politicians picking their voters instead of voters picking their politicians. IT’S CHEATING, BASICALLY. Immigration WE NEED TO SECURE THE BORDER, AND WE NEED TO EMBRACE LEGAL IMMIGRATION. I want the Federal government to spend more money to have more border patrol agents and to use technology like drones, cameras, robots, etc. to help prevent illegal immigration and to capture illegal drugs and criminals. I do not believe in building a wall; these strategies that I have outlined are more effective than a wall, cheaper to implement, and faster to build. I also want the Federal government to spend more money to have more judges to help process legal immigration and legal asylum cases. If their cases are good and meet the required criteria, those people should be welcomed into our society so they can start to contribute, serve, and pay taxes. That’s a wonderful thing. Legal immigrants are not criminals. If they don’t pass the criteria for asylum or immigration then they should be denied entry and sent back to the countries from where they came. We should process these cases quickly so that we don’t have all of these families in detention centers. We should not have all of these children separated from their families. This is a disgrace and is preposterous. My solutions fix these problems and are a good centrist, middle-of-the-road solution. Republicans, conservatives, independents, Democrats, and liberals would all be on board for this. Social Security I GOT A PLAN THAT WILL FIX SOCIAL SECURITY ONCE AND FOR ALL. First, I want to change the age for Social Security eligibility for everybody under the age of 40 by one year. That’s right, just one year. Second, I want to change the age for Social Security eligibility for everybody under the age of 20 by two years. That’s right, just two years. Then, thereafter, I want the age for Social Security eligibility to be updated based on people living longer, so basically inflate the age limit based on average mortality. That’s it! That’s all that is needed to solve social security. It does not affect benefits for people currently receiving Social Security or for people that are about to get Social Security. This is a great centrist, middle-of-the-road solution. Republicans, conservatives, independents, democrats, and liberals would all be on board for this. Now, if you want to have your eyes glaze over, I have one last final solution that’s AWESOME. There’s the tax for Social Security. It is 6.2%. It comes out of your paycheck. However most people don’t know that there’s an income limit to the tax. Its 6.2% up to approximately $140,000 of income. Why do I bring this up? Well, if you make $50,000, you pay 6.2% on all $50,000. If you make one million dollars, you only pay 6.2% for the first $140,000. Did you know that?! So, for people that make over $1,000,000 per year, the amount that they pay for social security is actually 0.9%! That means the poor, the working class, and the middle class pay much more for Social Security as a percentage of their income than people that are super rich. That’s horribly unfair. So, what I want to do is actually lower the Social Security tax for EVERYONE from 6.2% to 3% and remove the income limit. This will be the biggest tax cut in the history of the U.S. for the working class and middle class. And, it will also make the system much more fair. Government Spending I want to cut government spending, but unlike other politicians that don’t actually have the courage to mention what they wanna cut, I will. I WANT TO CUT $100 BILLION A YEAR FROM THE BUDGET FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. Keep in mind there’s a difference between the Department of Defense and the military. The Department of Defense’s budget is $750 billion a year; the troops get $150 billion of that a year. That doesn’t include the $270 billion for Veterans Affairs. So, where does the remaining $600 billion ($750 billion total – $150 for the troops) go? Obviously, some of it goes to bases, research, the war on terror. However, a lot of it goes to a huge bureaucracy. A lot of it goes to contractors, special interests, and private companies. This is what President Eisenhower called “the military-industrial complex” and warned the country about in his farewell address in 1961. Did you know that George Washington in his farewell address in 1796 said that an overgrown military is a threat to liberty? Do you think politicians keep spending this money because the Department of Defense wants it? No, the Department has actually told Congress to cut many programs. So, why do the politicians continue: because they get money from the defense contractors from lobbying! Aren’t we tired of these endless wars? Aren’t we tired of being the policeman for the world? Instead of spending all of this money on combat jets we won’t use, tanks we don’t need, a larger than needed bureaucracy, we should use that money for cancer research, for Alzheimer’s research, for reducing the deficit. Therefore, my plan supports the troops and doesn’t reduce how much money they receive, improves our priorities, and reduces our deficit. Keep in mind that this solution will be hard to implement unless we ban money in politics. Miscellaneous Issues I want to have permanent Daylight Savings Time. It should have a positive effect on health and productivity. Isn’t it about time to ditch this antiquated system? I want the U.S. to move to metric. As of 2019, the only other countries not using metric are Myanmar and Liberia. Really?! Is that the company we want to keep? Science, health, engineering, and the military use the metric system. Why is the country still on an outdated system of units? There is global competition for technology and people. We’re just giving ourselves a disadvantage. I want to have required courses in High School for civics/government and financial literacy. So, many people are unfamiliar with how our government works. And, so many people are unfamiliar with financial concepts from doing your taxes, to compounding, to debt management. We have to change this deficiency! Separation of Church & State RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE SEPARATE. The U.S. is a representative democracy, which is Greek for rule by people, not a theocracy, which is rule by religion. Politicians should be respectful of other religions and inclusive. I’m not voting for a politician to be a preacher, I’m voting for them to be a legislator. I’m voting for them based on their solutions for education, health care, economic growth, and political corruption. The First Amendment has freedom of religion, so you can be whatever religion you want to be and you are welcome here. We want you to thrive, regardless of religion. If you’re thinking of immigrating to the U.S., you are welcome here, regardless of religion. We want you to thrive. 23% of the country doesn’t even have a religion. And, they are welcome here, too. Guns I respect the Second Amendment & don’t want to take away your guns. However, people that are on the terrorist no-fly list, people that are convicted criminals, and people that are convicted domestic abusers should not be able to get guns. Currently, there are transactions allowed where they can buy guns. I want to prohibit that. Second, we should have a better health care system that covers mental health care. Political Correctness Political correctness has gone too far in our society. I think we’re changing our society into a bunch of over-sensitive, entitled, participation trophy wusses. Adversity breeds success. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. We need to bring these values back into our society. I don’t know how to accomplish this task through legislation, but I want you to know where I stand. If You Want to Vote for My Opponent Go right ahead. But, if you see your health care costs rise, see income inequality get worse, see who you voted for just blame the opposing political party, see them take care of their donors and not you, don’t say I didn’t warn you. [2] |
” |
| —Ahmad Adnan[3] | ||
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on December 28, 2019
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ahmad Adnan 2020 campaign website, "Issues," accessed February 5, 2020
