Ricky Knoles
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Ricky Knoles (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Florida's 4th Congressional District. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.[source]
Knoles completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Ricky Knoles was born in Lemoore, California. He served in the U.S. Army from 1996 to 1999. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in 2005. His career experience includes working as an English teacher and video editor.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Florida's 4th Congressional District election, 2026
Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Clay County District Schools, Florida, elections (2024)
Nonpartisan primary election
The primary election was canceled. Beth Clark (Nonpartisan) won the election without appearing on the ballot.
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Knoles in this election.
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ricky Knoles completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Knoles' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I'm a veteran. I served in the military for 3 years. I worked as a teacher for 14 years. I also worked Sheriff deputy for 6 months. I have been married for over 7 years and have two children.
- Reform Social Security
- Universal healthcare for children
- Better care for veterans
I looked up to my grandparents. My grandfather was on disability but always was able to work hard, My grandmother was a waitress and we knew how to stretch a dollar in order to feed the family. They both show me that it doesn't matter if you have money that if you work hard you can have the life you want. They also taught me that you shouldn't neglect what you have in life.
Trustworthy, caring, and decisive.
Core responsibilities is to be loyal to the voters. You shouldn't represent a party, you shouldn't represent the president, you should always represent the voters first.
I would like to leave a legacy that I helped the people of America. I don't care if they remember my name but instead the policies that I passed in order to make America greater than what it was when I was young.
First major political event that I remember is when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and I was 13 years old. I had to do a report on how and why the Berlin Wall fell. It gave me a sense that people can really make changes over politicians that do not want to help the people. It showed me the power that the people have if we all unite together.
My very first job was at Hardee's in Virginia Beach and I worked there for about 2 years. I started a job when I turned 16 years old. It taught me how to be responsible when you work in a job.
One of my favorite books is the Thin Man by Samuel Dashiell Hammett. My grandfather first showed me the movie and I loved it so much that I wanted to read the book.
If I could be a fictional character I would like to be Spider-Man. Because like Spider-Man's Uncle Ben said with great power comes great responsibility. A lot of congressmans have great power, but they don't want to take responsibility for their actions or their policies.
The thing I struggle about in my life is that I always want to achieve higher than what I did previously. The struggle is to accept things that is out of your hand and learn how to live with it and accept it.
If the US House of Representative is working correctly, it should represent everybody in each state. However, we don't have that working right now. It sees more like red States versus blue States instead of the United States.
No, I don't think you should have previous experience in garment in order to be an effective congressman. All you need is the desire to make America great and rely on smart people around you to guide you on this journey. We have seen in the past. There are plenty of people who don't have political experience but only have money to buy their position.
The greatest challenge is to unite the American people and stop making us being separate by our political party.
No, I think House of Representatives should be 3 years because 2 years seem so short and once you get elected you're already campaigning for the next year and are able to concentrate on the issues at hand that affects your state and your country. Each term should be 3 years but limited to 3 terms for a total of 9 years.
Us House of Representative should have a term limit of 9 years, US Senate should have tern limit of 12 years.
No, I believe that we can learn from all previous politicians. We learn from their achievements and we learn from their mistakes. And if we try hard enough, we won't make the same mistakes of the past.
I hear many stories how people are worried about social security and how the payments each month won't be enough to sustain them when they retire at age 67. With growing costs of health Care, cost of living and if you don't own your own home renting. Most people who are on retirement have to collect Social Security and work a job in their golden years. They tell me they don't like living on Social Security paycheck to paycheck.
Yes, everything is a compromise if you have a two-party system. However, when parties are more interested in there agendas over the agenda of the American people, then compromise has to be vital for the United States to work.
I believe that if a bill doesn't truly represent the American people, we shouldn't raise revenue for that program. The problem with raising revenue in Congress is a lot of representatives. Don't want to represent the people but rather represent big companies and themselves.
When people are brought in front of Congress, there should be more consequences if they lie under investigation. If someone does not want to answer the question, they should be removed from their position.
I've heard stories from parents that their greatest concern is the safety of the children in school. When I went to school in the '80s, parents never had to worry about their kids being shot, but now it seems it's become more of a reality and a norm to expect mass shootings at schools. We always say that we want to put children first and yet we always put them last.
My greatest accomplishment is having my two children and being married to my wife. Because even if I'm not remembered by anybody else, they will always remember me finally.
Artificial intelligence is the future, but we need to learn how to regulate it so people cannot abuse it or abuse the voters in America. It will take strict guidelines from both parties to agree on how to use AI in government official capacity. We can't stop the future of AI, but we can make sure it benefits the people of the United States.
I believe legislation for election administration has to be consistent among all 50 states. We have to make sure that the districts represent the real people living there. I also believe that if you were running for anything you have to live within that District, not just own a home.
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.
2024
Ricky Knoles did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
External links
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 24, 2025
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