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Keanakay Scott
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Keanakay Scott (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent California's 34th Congressional District. She lost in the primary on March 3, 2020.
Scott completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2020
See also: California's 34th Congressional District election, 2020
General election
General election for U.S. House California District 34
Incumbent Jimmy Gomez defeated David Kim in the general election for U.S. House California District 34 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jimmy Gomez (D)  | 53.0 | 108,792 |
 | David Kim (D) | 47.0 | 96,554 | |
| Total votes: 205,346 | |||
| = 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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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 34
Incumbent Jimmy Gomez and David Kim defeated Frances Yasmeen Motiwalla, Joanne Wright, and Keanakay Scott in the primary for U.S. House California District 34 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jimmy Gomez (D) | 52.0 | 57,066 |
| ✔ | | David Kim (D) | 21.0 | 23,055 |
 | Frances Yasmeen Motiwalla (D) | 13.6 | 14,961 | |
 | Joanne Wright (R) | 7.7 | 8,482 | |
 | Keanakay Scott (D) | 5.6 | 6,089 | |
| Total votes: 109,653 | |||
| = 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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Shannel Pittman (G)
- Vanessa Aramayo (D)
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Keanakay Scott completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Scott's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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In and out of foster care since the age of four, Keanakay Scott aged out of the system at eighteen. She was homeless for more than a decade despite being chronically employed. She has worked to advocate for policy change in the foster care system and been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, Fox News, and other print, radio and TV programs. She speaks regularly about the issues of foster care and homelessness.
- Homelessness
- Immigration
- Climate Change
Homelessness, foster care reform, and prison reform are the issues that I am most passionate about. These issues have directly affected and shaped my quality of life since I was four years old. I spent over a decade homeless because I was kicked out of my group home at 18 and unprepared for adulthood by foster families and group home agencies. I did not meet my father until I was 15 years old because he was in prison for my entire childhood and reoffended two years after I met him because he was not able to get acclimated to the outside world. What I experienced in foster care and even during the 11 years I was unhoused is not unique. I have spent the last two years educating, raising awareness, and fighting to make sure that these cycles are broken.
Climate change is important to me because I am a mother. Every day I think about what my children's future will hold and I am unsure. Not because of circumstance but because I have no idea if there will be a habitable world for them to live in. I am determined to make sure that the planet is habitable for my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
I look up to Founding Executive Director of Alexandria House, Judy Vaughan. During my time as a resident at Alexandria House transitional shelter and my time after leaving the shelter, I have never met someone who is more selfless. Since the shelter's opening over 20 years ago, Judy has lived with the residents, she has chosen not to take a room for herself but instead sleeps on a couch in her office, she takes a salary that puts her at the poverty line and I've never once heard her complain. She's always seeking to understand and looking for ways to better serve the women who live in the shelter and the community. Although she may get tired at times and I'm sure her job is stressful I have never seen her take it out on anyone. She's always quick to apologize if she's offended someone and lives her life with integrity and moral excellence. She truly has a servant's heart - I aspire to be like her, to serve as selflessly as she has, and to think of the needs of others before my own no matter what the personal sacrifice.
The bible, specifically these verses; "those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need" Proverb 21:13 NLT and "the second is equally important: 'love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these.." Mark 12:31 NLT
The way I treat and value others is a reflection of the way I treat and value myself. This isn't just my political philosophy but my philosophy for life.
Moral excellence
Integrity
Compassion
Empathy
Humility
I have lived through many of the issues and understand that the saying, 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' is a myth. I have experienced the worst that life has to offer and there is literally nothing that anyone could do or say to me that would make me compromise my integrity or cause me to stop fighting for the people I represent.
The core responsibility of an elected official is to be a servant. Elected official's job is to serve the community who put their trust in them by voting for them. Putting the interests of the people before their own.
I want to be known as someone who also fought for what was right whether or not it was popular.
The first historical event that I remember is when I was in the 6th grade and President George W. Bush was elected into office. I organized a protest and walkout in response to his election. I collected signatures from students at my middle school on a petition I created in protest to his election and to get the voting age lowers from 18 to 15.
The most important historical event for me happened when I was 18 years old when President Barack Obama was elected. I was a couple weeks away from my due date with my oldest daughter. I lived in Victorville at the time- I remember walking a little over 2 miles one way in the snow to vote for the first time. I was so proud when he got elected and had a strong sense of pride because I helped by casting my vote in his favor.
The most important historical event for me happened when I was 18 years old when President Barack Obama was elected. I was a couple weeks away from my due date with my oldest daughter. I lived in Victorville at the time- I remember walking a little over 2 miles one way in the snow to vote for the first time. I was so proud when he got elected and had a strong sense of pride because I helped by casting my vote in his favor.
My first job was as a movie attendant at Pacific Theaters at the Grove; I was 16 years old and was hired on my 16th birthday. I worked there for 2 months before going to work at McDonald's.
Viewer's Discretion Advised because I wrote it haha. I have several favorite books; the Harry Potter series, Twilight series, Hunger Games series, Nelson Mandela's biography, Malcolm X Autobiography, Diary of Anne Frank, Indistractable, and Under Cover are a few. I love each book for different reasons with the exception of the last two books I read all of them throughout my childhood. They were the stories I used to escape the realities of foster care. Indistractable and Under Cover are books that I have read or listened to in the last year that have helped me grow into a more well rounded person.
I don't know here are the songs I listened to on repeat in the last week.
Allen Stone - Brown Eyed Lover, Sunny Days
Wale - Sue Me, Her Fault, BGM
Jonathan McReynolds - All Things Well, Smile, Comparison Kills
Nas - Cherry Wine
Travis Greene - Respond, Won't Let Me Go
Growing up in foster care and then becoming homeless after aging out and then spending over a decade homeless was one of the hardest things. I thought that if I got a job and worked hard then I could be stable and have a great life but that was not the case. When I realized that working hard didn't always mean stability it directly affected my self-worth. I thought something was wrong with me, I thought I was the reason I wasn't successful, it didn't occur to me until much later that it was systemic and that the system was designed to keep people oppressed.
The House of Representatives is unique because of the ability to pass laws that affect the entire country. The decisions made in the House affect the entire country; an example of this is the federal minimum wage not being raised for the last ten years is a poor decision made by the House.
No, I think experience in government and politics isn't always necessary or the only type of experience that should count. Lived experience is just as important.
I think there are several challenges facing the nation over the next decade. Student loan debt is crippling millions of people, there's no clear path to citizenship, homelessness is becoming an epidemic everywhere, Black people are murdered and their families never receive justice, LGBTQIA+, women, and people of color do not have equal rights. This list could go on and on.
I think too much emphasis is put on committees and creates an internal hierarchy that's focused on obtaining power and control within the House instead of doing what is best for the communities representatives serve. Many people in office today strive for committee seats as a means of status within the House not because it's a way of better serving the people of the districts who elected them. My primary focus is serving the people of the 34th district and being on the committee that will best help me to put them and their needs first.
I am not a current representative.
If politicians didn't spend a year and a half fundraising and cozying up to lobbyists and corporate donors two years would be the right term length.
I am in favor of term lengths, I think every public office should have a term limit.
I think speaker of the House would be interesting. I think having someone in position who isn't afraid to say what needs to be said and expose what is really going on is necessary. Every day people are left in the dark and look to the speaker of the House to provide clarity and speak to them in a way that is understood. We shouldn't have a speaker who is great at political theater but poor at communicating what's going on and calling a spade a spade. That kind of honesty and truth would have to come from someone with nothing to lose, whose unbought and unbossed.
Elijah Cummings, Barbra Lee, and AOC.
There is no one story that's more impactful than the other. I have been an advocate against homelessness and rights for foster youth for the last three years and have heard and told my own story several times over. What I find the most profound is the resilience of the people. I have experienced and heard some of the most tragic things, ranging from mother's sleeping in abandoned houses with their children to women forgoing chemo out of fear of ICE. Despite experiencing things that should have knocked them down and kept them oppressed they get up every day and continue to hope, they continue to fight and continue to dream.
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.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
Senators
Alex Padilla (D)
Adam Schiff (D)
Representatives
District 1
Doug LaMalfa (R)
District 2
Jared Huffman (D)
District 3
Kevin Kiley (R)
District 4
Mike Thompson (D)
District 5
Tom McClintock (R)
District 6
Ami Bera (D)
District 7
Doris Matsui (D)
District 8
John Garamendi (D)
District 9
Josh Harder (D)
District 10
Mark DeSaulnier (D)
District 11
Nancy Pelosi (D)
District 12
Lateefah Simon (D)
District 13
Adam Gray (D)
District 14
Eric Swalwell (D)
District 15
Kevin Mullin (D)
District 16
Sam Liccardo (D)
District 17
Ro Khanna (D)
District 18
Zoe Lofgren (D)
District 19
Jimmy Panetta (D)
District 20
Vince Fong (R)
District 21
Jim Costa (D)
District 22
David Valadao (R)
District 23
Jay Obernolte (R)
District 24
Salud Carbajal (D)
District 25
Raul Ruiz (D)
District 26
Julia Brownley (D)
District 27
District 28
Judy Chu (D)
District 29
Luz Rivas (D)
District 30
Laura Friedman (D)
District 31
Gil Cisneros (D)
District 32
Brad Sherman (D)
District 33
Pete Aguilar (D)
District 34
Jimmy Gomez (D)
District 35
Norma Torres (D)
District 36
Ted Lieu (D)
District 37
District 38
Linda Sánchez (D)
District 39
Mark Takano (D)
District 40
Young Kim (R)
District 41
Ken Calvert (R)
District 42
Robert Garcia (D)
District 43
Maxine Waters (D)
District 44
Nanette Barragán (D)
District 45
Derek Tran (D)
District 46
Lou Correa (D)
District 47
Dave Min (D)
District 48
Darrell Issa (R)
District 49
Mike Levin (D)
District 50
Scott Peters (D)
District 51
Sara Jacobs (D)
District 52
Juan Vargas (D)
Democratic Party (45)
Republican Party (9)
