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Rick Kennedy
Rick Kennedy (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 17th Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Kennedy completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Rick Kennedy was born in Massachusetts and lives in Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Penn State University in 1984. Kennedy’s career experience includes working as a software engineer and project manager.[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. | ||||
| 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. | ||||
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. | ||||
| 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 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. | ||||
| 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. | ||||
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. | ||||
| 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 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
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. | ||||
| 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. | ||||
2018
General election
General election for U.S. House Texas District 17
Incumbent Bill Flores defeated Rick Kennedy and Peter Churchman in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 17 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Bill Flores (R) | 56.8 | 134,841 |
| Rick Kennedy (D) | 41.3 | 98,070 | |
 | Peter Churchman (L) | 1.9 | 4,440 | |
| Total votes: 237,351 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 17
Rick Kennedy defeated Dale Mantey in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 17 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Rick Kennedy | 63.3 | 14,343 |
 | Dale Mantey | 36.7 | 8,300 | |
| Total votes: 22,643 | |||
| = 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 Texas District 17
Incumbent Bill Flores advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 17 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Bill Flores | 100.0 | 44,388 |
| Total votes: 44,388 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Rick Kennedy completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kennedy'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 share these concerns too and decided to participate in our great democracy by running for Congress. For more than a decade, I've called Central Texas home. My three children grew up attending Round Rock Public Schools, and my oldest now attends Baylor University.
Over my lifetime, I've developed the skills and collected the life experiences to qualify as your congressman. I'm a software engineer and project manager. I have spent more than 35 years in evidence-based problem solving in complex environments, as well as brokering consensus among diverse groups of stakeholders. I currently work as a project manager providing advice and expertise to clients from around the world.
I now want to work on behalf of the people of Congressional District TX17. It's time for new representation in Congress--leaders who respect the viewpoints of all their constituents, leaders who will put loyalty to the country, the Constitution, and their constituents ahead of PACs, parties, and presidents.- I support creating a public option to make Medicare available to all who want it. A public option will: *Achieve universal coverage - especially important in rural areas where the uninsured rate is high. * Address uncompensated care for hospitals, a significant contributor to rural hospital closures. *NOT eliminate private insurance. If you are happy with your employer sponsored insurance, you won't be forced to give it up *Preserve the protections for those with preexisting conditions achieved under the ACA *Provide relief from medical bill-induced bankruptcy - the leading cause of US personal bankruptcy. *Empower Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. A public option is a practical, achievable next step.
- I advocate a comprehensive revision of our immigration system that both meets our economic and security needs and reflects our values as a society. The pillars of such a plan: *Treat all asylum seekers with basic human dignity and respect and process their claims in a timely manner * Secure our borders and ports of entry with a portfolio of technology and human resource based solutions * Emphasize interior enforcement through mandatory pre-hiring E-Verify checks and prosecution of employers who fail to comply * A path to citizenship for many of our 10.5 million undocumented residents who have lived among us for more than a decade, that focuses on security and brings them fully into the fold of our communities.
- The time to argue over the validity of climate change is over. The time to act is now. As your Congressman, I would support a carbon dividend and fee policy similar to the one proposed by the Climate Leadership Council. Such a plan would provide market incentives to businesses and individuals to reduce carbon emissions and provide funding for research into clean energy alternatives - research that will lead to technology improvements that would make clean energy production more economically feasible right here in Central Texas.
- Expand voter registration and access
*Improve election securityI know that it will take a lot more than these first steps to ease our current polarization. But if we don't start this long journey with a few small steps now, we'll never get there.
*Establish an alternative campaign funding system the includes federal matching of small contributions
*Tighten ethics standards for all three branches of government
*Reduce or eliminate gerrymandering (most important, in my opinion) by requiring states to establish independent, nonpartisan redistricting commissions
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.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Rick Kennedy Texas Congress. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- United States House of Representatives
- Texas' 17th Congressional District election, 2018
- Texas' 17th Congressional District
External links
Footnotes
