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Danielle Hawk
Danielle Hawk (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Florida's 3rd Congressional District. She lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Hawk completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Danielle Hawk was born in Darby, Pennsylvania. She earned a bachelor's degree from Palm Beach Atlantic University in 2017. She attended Biola University in 2020. Her career experience includes working as a project manager at a small business.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Florida's 3rd Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House Florida District 3
Incumbent Kat Cammack defeated Danielle Hawk and Linda Brooks in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 3 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Kat Cammack (R) | 62.5 | 178,101 |
 | Danielle Hawk (D)  | 36.3 | 103,382 | |
 | Linda Brooks (No Party Affiliation) | 1.2 | 3,410 | |
| Total votes: 284,893 | |||
| = 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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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 3
Danielle Hawk defeated Tom Wells in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 3 on August 23, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Danielle Hawk | 67.6 | 37,181 |
 | Tom Wells | 32.4 | 17,799 | |
| Total votes: 54,980 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 3
Incumbent Kat Cammack defeated Justin Waters in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 3 on August 23, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kat Cammack | 85.2 | 63,279 |
 | Justin Waters | 14.8 | 11,022 | |
| Total votes: 74,301 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Manuel Asensio (R) (Unofficially withdrew)
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Danielle Hawk completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hawk's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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As an administrator in higher education, I pushed for more equitable distribution of scholarship funding, allowing for more low-income students to access international education opportunities. During the height of the pandemic, I organized with local community leaders to push for a safe work environment for university staff and faculty. Most recently, I co-organized the North Central Florida March for Reproductive Freedom and Justice as a long-time advocate for women’s rights.
Whether it’s pushing for more equitable policies in the workplace, organizing protests, or speaking truth to power, I've learned how to address critical community-based issues. I'm running for Congress because as an active constituent of FL-03 and as a working-class resident of Alachua County, I realize that our district’s challenges require community-first leadership.
- Right to Repair: Any rancher or farmer who owns agricultural equipment should be given full ownership of technology and the freedom to repair at a low cost. Large corporations are holding our small to medium-sized farmers hostage. Spending thousands of dollars, driving hours to the dealership, and waiting in queues to repair equipment that could be easily fixed at home is not realistic. We must ensure that purchases of tools, vehicles, and machinery come with access to diagnostic software to encourage economic competition and keep our rural communities thriving.
- Protecting Our Water: In Florida, big businesses are pumping groundwater faster than it can be replenished. While everyday residents pay hard-earned money for water in their homes, large multinational corporations like Nestle exploit our most valuable natural resource at a fraction of the cost to make a profit. We need to make sure these corporations pay their fair share for the water they use. In addition, it's high time we provide federal protection and funding for the springs. Our district is home to the largest concentration of freshwater springs in the world. By involving the federal government in prioritizing their conservation, we can revitalize our local economies and build healthy, safe, and prosperous communities.
- Accessible & Affordable Healthcare: Our current healthcare system exists to serve the best interests of corporations, not people. The system is designed to maximize profits at the cost of everyday Americans. We are tired of being bankrupted by prescription drug costs, administration fees, surprise medical bills, and health insurance premiums. In order to make quality medical care accessible to everyone, prescription drug costs must be reduced, while also expanding the current healthcare system to include mental health services and substance dependency programs. Anyone with pre-existing conditions should not be subject to corporate exceptions; regardless of medical history, everyone should have equal access to high-quality healthcare.
Another huge challenge that our nation will face is recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As one of the most devastating public health crises in history, the pandemic exposed the glaring inequities in our society. Eradicating the virus, rebuilding our economy, and getting back to “normal” will take us years of us working together as a nation.
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
Hawk's campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Defending Democracy and Voting Rights At this very moment, the foundations of American democracy are being threatened by those who do not believe that we the people should choose our own representatives. Since the insurrection at our nation’s Capitol, supporters of former President Trump’s Big Lie have been undermining the integrity of our democracy by passing numerous anti-voter laws across our country. In this moment of peril, all Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who cherish our republic must stand up for democratic values by denouncing election lies. Instead of weakening our republic, we should instead be strengthening self-government by passing the Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA), enacting the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA), and reforming the Electoral Count Act (ECA). Enacting and strengthening these pieces of legislation will ensure that voters of color are equitably represented in Congress, stop rampant voter suppression, establish clear penalties for fraudulent electoral slates, crack down on dark money in politics, and ensure American democracy thrives in the 21st century. After losing in 2020, Trump perpetuated lies about the election to justify his illegal plot to stay in power. One of Trump’s most dangerous lies was that former Vice President Mike Pence could simply ignore the American people and grant him another four years in office by exploiting alleged deficiencies in the Electoral Count Act. To stop future presidents from abusing the rules established by the ECA, we should revise the law to prevent vice presidents from falsely asserting the power to select the president of the United States. In addition to further establishing the vice president’s solely ceremonial role in the counting of electoral votes, we should secure the peaceful transfer of power by raising the numerical threshold necessary for members of Congress to challenge electors. Requiring more members to support an objection will make it more difficult for election lies to gain a foothold within Congress. We should also increase the penalty for presenting fraudulent electoral slates as was done by allies of former president Trump after the 2020 Election. Defrauding the government of the United States and denying the American people their right to a free and fair election demands a serious response. In the nearly two years since the 2020 Election, Republican legislators across the United States have been discrediting our democracy to further their own undemocratic goals. In state after state, they have justified anti-democratic laws by repeating falsehoods about the 2020 Election. In response to Republicans’ anti-democratic agenda, we must enact bold pro-voter, anti-corruption, and pro-democracy legislation. This begins with passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA) which will restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act, ensure that voters of color are represented in Congress, and ban states from engaging in voter suppression. The VRAA will accomplish the latter by restoring so-called pre-clearance which allows the federal government to bar discriminatory states from implementing unfair election rules. In Florida, this will prevent the state government from weakening Black Floridians’ political power by splitting them into separate legislative districts, making it harder for them to vote, and disenfranchising them with unfair voter purges. To stop states from closing polling places to hurt voters of color, the VRAA will block states from ending Sunday early voting which is commonly used by Black churches’ voter programs. In addition, the legislation will allow the Department of Justice to prevent states from using unfair voter-ID laws to suppress disfavored groups. While enacting the VRAA will greatly improve our electoral system, this legislation alone is insufficient for addressing the crisis of American democracy. In response to Republican states’ anti-voter laws, Congress should pass the Freedom to Vote Act which will establish comprehensive national rules to protect American democracy. The FTVA will ban gerrymandering, require presidential candidates to disclose their finances, and enfranchise millions of Americans who have been denied their right to vote. To allow more Americans to elect their representatives, this legislation will expand early-voting opportunities, eliminate unfair limits on mail ballots, and make Election Day a federal holiday. To finally end Jim-Crow, the FTVA will also allow all formerly incarcerated citizens to vote in our elections. To defend our elections from partisan interference, the FTVA will increase penalties for threatening election workers’ critical work, ban the removal of election officials without legitimate cause, and prohibit partisan election reviews. To prevent racially-discriminatory and partisan gerrymandering, the FTVA will set clear national rules that prevent states from disenfranchising communities of color and supporters of particular parties. Enacting the FTVA will be a victory for all Americans, regardless of party, who believe that we should choose our politicians rather than the other way around. As American democracy is attacked on a daily basis by undemocratic politicians across our nation, we must demand that our federal government act urgently to protect all Americans’ right to vote.
Gun violence is a profoundly American problem. Every day in the United States, 110 Americans are killed by firearms in incidents of gun violence. While traffic fatalities had long been the leading cause of death among children in the United States, gun violence now tragically takes the lives of more of our nation’s children. We are no longer safe going to school, shopping for groceries, enjoying a movie or even visiting a house of worship. Despite this dark reality, daily acts of gun violence and mass shootings could largely be prevented by implementing data-driven policy. Every moment we refuse as a nation to boldly confront the epidemic of gun violence in America, another life is stolen from us. The American people strongly support enacting common-sense gun-safety legislation to save the lives of students, grocery shoppers, movie goers, and congregants. To begin curbing gun violence, we must close the loopholes allowing individuals to purchase guns without passing background checks. In particular, we should require comprehensive checks on all gun sales and transfers to prevent dangerous individuals from accessing deadly weapons. To prevent criminals from using untraceable firearms to avoid responsibility, we must outlaw the manufacture and distribution of ghost guns. Domestic abusers and other violent criminals should be barred from purchasing firearms and required to turn over all their weapons to local law enforcement. Doing so would significantly reduce the number of women and intimate partners being victimized by gun violence each year. We should immediately reinstate the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act which had instituted a decade-long moratorium on selling and manufacturing assault rifles. This law must be permanently restored to crack down on the military-style, high-capacity rifles flowing into our communities. Assault rifles were used to perpetrate the mass-casualties events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a concert in Las Vegas, a movie theater in Aurora, and most recently at an elementary school in Uvalde. In all five of these horrific massacres, the shooters used AR-15 assault rifles which are modeled after the United States military’s M-16 rifle. To reduce unintentional gun deaths and suicides among children, the federal government should be educating parents and guardians on safe and responsible gun ownership. In addition, we must hold accountable those negligent individuals whose weapons are used in the commission of crimes due to their failure to secure their firearms. We can significantly reduce the number of guns on the streets of America and save lives by providing federal funding for optional buy-back programs. By enacting data-driven policies, we can achieve our objective of lowering the number of firearms in the United States and save thousands of lives each year. Corrupt politicians receiving financial contributions from firearms manufacturers tell us that nothing can be done, but the American people are committed to ending the horrific cycle of gun violence in our country. The American people rightly recognize that this crisis is not inevitable and that we must urgently act to save lives. In recognition of her commitment to curbing gun violence, Danielle proudly accepted the 2022 Gun-Sense Candidate Distinction from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Along with this incredible honor, Danielle is one of three Floridians this cycle who has been endorsed by the national anti-gun violence organization, Everytown for Gun Safety.
Our water, environmental, and climate policies should serve the public rather than the interests of big business. The people of Florida deserve to enjoy our state’s natural beauty without having the health of our ecosystems and communities threatened by massive corporations. In North Central Florida, this means ensuring that our beautiful freshwater springs receive federal protection from multinational corporations like Nestle. Even our own state government is attacking our environment by forcing a destructive toll road on the rural counties of Florida’s 3rd District. We must confront the damaging practices of the phosphate mining industry which has been bullying our local communities. In Florida, our economy relies heavily on our beautiful coastlines, but this has not stopped fossil fuel corporations from agitating for new drilling privileges in the Gulf of Mexico. We must permanently ban oil drilling off Florida’s coasts to protect our coastal waters, fight the climate crisis, and strengthen our local economy. We the people of Florida deserve leaders who will prioritize our health over the profits of destructive private corporations. In North Central Florida, we have the largest concentration of freshwater springs on planet Earth. Our breathtaking springs provide beautiful natural spaces for residents and draw tourists from around the world. While ordinary residents spend their hard-earned money for water, large multinational corporations like Nestle are only paying pennies on the dollar. For their own profit, big businesses are pumping water faster than it can be replenished and are rapidly draining our main source of drinking water, the Floridan Aquifer. At the same time, phosphate mining companies are steamrolling our municipal governments into accepting dangerous practices. We must confront the massive corporations undermining the ecological health of our communities by placing Floridians at the center of our water policy. The federal government should provide the funding and resources necessary for conserving our freshwater springs, breaching the Rodman Dam, restoring the Ocklawaha River, and making sure that corporations using our water pay their fair share. Over the last decade, oil corporations have been pushing for new oil extraction privileges in the Gulf of Mexico despite recent oil spills that have wreaked havoc on our coastal communities. To prevent future catastrophes, we must permanently ban the gas and oil industry from drilling off the coast of Florida. We need political leaders who recognize that keeping the oil industry profitable is not worth polluting our coastal communities, killing marine life, and contaminating our water supply. Likewise, our state legislature is forcing a wasteful toll road on our rural counties in Florida’s 3rd District despite the highway’s potential to destroy the ecosystems that we rely on. The legislature isn’t concerned about doing right by Floridians. Instead, it’s acting in the interests of the private corporations and wealthy donors who would profit from constructing this unnecessary toll road. We should listen to the residents of our rural counties who are loudly rejecting all efforts to build this disastrous toll road through their families’ lands. Alarming levels of global warming threaten our ability to live normal lives while disproportionately harming the most disadvantaged in our society. In Florida, the climate crisis is leading to more devastating hurricanes, rising sea levels, additional heat deaths, lost crop harvests, and reduced sources of freshwater. The climate crisis compels us to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels which are destroying our planet. Instead of subsidizing our own ruin by giving tax breaks to oil and gas corporations, we should be investing in the clean, renewable energy sources of the future. Despite the serious danger posed by the climate crisis, gradually eliminating fossil fuels from our economy will allow us to reinvest in our communities by constructing new clean infrastructure and manufacturing low and zero emission vehicles. Hawk for Congress has pledged to not accept contributions “from oil, gas, and coal industry executives, lobbyists, and PACs and instead prioritize the health of our families, climate, and democracy over fossil fuel industry profits.”
Ranchers and farmers should have the freedom to repair their own agricultural equipment without corporate interference. Family-owned farms are currently being held hostage by big equipment manufacturers - forced to spend thousands of dollars and drive hours to distant dealerships to repair equipment that could be more easily and cheaply fixed at home or by a local mechanic. The purchases of tools, vehicles, and machinery should always come with access to diagnostic software enabling farmers to repair the property they bought with their hard-earned money. Guaranteeing the right to repair will foster economic competition, streamline locally-owned agriculture, and revitalize our rural communities.
All Americans must be guaranteed access to comprehensive reproductive health care to preserve our individual liberties and capacity to make informed decisions for ourselves at all stages of life. We must codify the right to bodily autonomy that was established in Roe v. Wade by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act. While the right to choose is a critical component of reproductive freedom, other issues affect our ability to make educated decisions about our own bodies. We must further guarantee that Americans receive age-appropriate, science-based reproductive education, experience menstrual equity and justice, and are provided comprehensive women’s healthcare services. These components include:
Expanding healthcare so that it is more affordable and accessible to families is a personal issue for Danielle. When Danielle was in high school, her younger sister was diagnosed with a chronic illness, and throughout her childhood her parents cared for her elderly grandparents, including her grandmother who battled Alzheimer’s. Our current healthcare system exists to serve the best interests of corporations, not people. The system is designed to maximize profits at the cost of everyday Americans. A study by The Commonwealth Fund found that nearly 23% of adults in the US were unable to pay their exorbitant medical bills. We are tired of being bankrupted by prescription drug costs, administration fees, surprise medical bills, and health insurance premiums. Affordable and accessible health care must be a national priority, so medicare for all should be the goal. An asthma inhaler costs approximately $450 in FL-03. In order to make quality medical care accessible to everyone, prescription drug costs must be reduced, while also expanding the current healthcare system to include mental health services and substance dependency programs. Anyone with pre-existing conditions should not be subject to corporate exceptions; regardless of medical history, everyone should have equal access to high-quality healthcare. Danielle has seen firsthand how our inadequate healthcare system can exacerbate health issues for the elderly. This is why she strongly disapproves of cutting access to Medicare and supports lowering the eligibility age to 50 and adding hearing, dental, and vision coverage. Medicare benefits should also drastically cut the cost of in-home care and assisted living facilities as monthly costs for ALF are at a national average of $4,330. Every American deserves the freedom to choose what doctors we see without corporations imposing in-network restrictions. Expanded healthcare options, including offering everyone access to a robust public option, will provide us the freedom we value as a nation. Our healthcare system also needs to provide improved and added benefits for our veterans. This includes providing mental health treatment before, during, and after duty, including appropriate treatment for PTSD and substance dependency to address the shocking veteran suicide rates. The VA Caregivers program, which supports veterans with service-related disabilities, should be expanded to provide more robust assistance to wounded veterans. Danielle is excited about the provisions associated with M4A. Her policy priorities for healthcare expansion include the following, which are all core tenants of M4A:
In 2020, more than 60% of Floridians voted to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour. Floridians, and all working-class Americans, are tired of working longer hours for lower wages. The federal minimum wage must be raised to $15 an hour. No one who works a full-time job should be unable to put food on their table or pay their bills. Local businesses are the backbone of America. If we want to support small businesses, we need to level the playing field against big corporations like Amazon, McDonald's, and Walmart who are capable of paying their workers far more than the federal minimum wage. To do so, Danielle would support a tax subsidy or other economic incentive that supports small businesses so that they too can raise their wages while maintaining sustainable profits.
Our rural communities are a vital part of life in North Central Florida and we need rural economic development, including bringing job-creating industries to our district. As we all experienced in 2020, access to the internet is imperative to keep our society from grinding to a halt. From locally owned small businesses to family farms, high-speed internet must be affordable and available to everyone. Every family needs reliable, fast internet access. Over 100,000 families in FL-03 don’t have it. Tech giants like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast have prioritized profits over delivering an essential service to millions of citizens nationwide for too long. Danielle will work to improve access to affordable services to communities by working to encourage innovation, competition, and breaking up monopolies that have given families no other choice than to pay unfair prices. The COVID-19 crisis illuminated the vast inequalities for internet access in our community, whether it was students who couldn’t attend virtual school, businesses who struggled to operate online, or workers who couldn’t rely on at-home internet access to work remotely. Bringing high speed internet, cable, 5G, and telecom to low-income schools and rural American communities will rectify this digital divide. This is an investment in our communities -- keeping them competitive in the digital job and education landscape to ensure economic growth and quality of life.
During her time working in higher education, Danielle saw firsthand how many educational opportunities are directly tied to a student’s financial situation. The United States has some of the highest college tuition rates in the world and the average has almost doubled in the last 30 years. We must work to eliminate barriers to higher education and find ways to increase financial support for lower- and middle-income families in FL-03. Generations of Floridians have benefitted from the state-wide Florida Bright Futures program. Danielle supports developing an expanded national merit-based tuition program for public institutions. Danielle also understands the importance of expanding Pell Grants and funding for the Federal Work Study program, as she benefitted from both programs during her undergraduate career. It is not enough to provide these opportunities for traditional four-year universities, but this should also be available for anyone who attends a trade school or a community college.
Working to serve everyone goes hand in hand with including everyone. In order to ensure Florida’s 3rd district provides an equitable community for all, Danielle Hawk is committed to advocating, supporting, and prioritizing marginalized communities. Regardless of race, ethnicity, education, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, nationality, or origin, striving to cultivate an inclusive and respectful community is a promise that Danielle will work tirelessly to maintain. From championing civil rights, ensuring accessible high-quality health care coverage, fighting for women's rights and gender equality, to addressing systemic inequalities and delivering accountability, Danielle is dedicated to bringing real representation to FL-03.[2] |
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| —Danielle Hawk's campaign website (2022)[3] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 13, 2022
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Danielle Hawk for Congress, “Issues,” accessed August 17, 2022
