Sandy Kennedy

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Sandy Kennedy

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Florida State University, 1989

Law

University of Miami School of Law, 1994

Personal

Birthplace

Florida

Religion

Methodist

Profession

Attorney at law

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

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Sandy Kennedy (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Florida's 8th Congressional District. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Kennedy completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Sandy Kennedy was born in Florida. She earned a bachelor's degree from Florida State University in 1989 and a law degree from the University of Miami School of Law in 1994. Her career experience includes working as an attorney at law.

Elections

2024

See also: Florida's 8th Congressional District election, 2024

Florida's 8th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 20 Republican primary)

Florida's 8th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 20 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Florida District 8

Mike Haridopolos defeated Sandy Kennedy in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 8 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mike Haridopolos (R)	62.2	280,352
		Sandy Kennedy (D)	37.8	170,096

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 450,448
= 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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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Jose Dieppa (No Party Affiliation)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 8

Sandy Kennedy defeated Daniel McDow in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 8 on August 20, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Sandy Kennedy	60.7	24,701
		Daniel McDow	39.3	15,999

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 40,700
= 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 8

Mike Haridopolos defeated John Hearton and Joseph Babits in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 8 on August 20, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mike Haridopolos	72.1	61,710
		John Hearton	21.7	18,604
		Joseph Babits	6.1	5,250

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 85,564
= 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

• Brian Jones (R)
• Bill Posey (R)

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Kennedy in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Sandy Kennedy completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. 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.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a native Floridian, female attorney with almost 3 decades of experience. I am Board Certified in Construction Law, which involves complex litigation, multiple complex issues of law and expert facts, and numerous parties and attorneys in a single case. I am accustomed to working incredibly hard, working very late hours when necessary, and will continue that hard work in Congress.

I have a law degree from the University of Miami (1994), and a B.A. in Political Science from Florida State University (1989). I started college at age 16, with a full scholarship to Centenary College of Louisiana.

I am married and have a son who is about to turn twenty-one. My husband is a financial manager in the space industry at NASA. My father was an officer in the Air Force, and I lived several years in Italy near a NATO Air Force Base. I’ve lived in Florida about 40 years, most of my life, unlike two other candidates who came here from out of state to run for Congress. My 3rd-great-grandparents settled Florida in the mid 1800’s, and various of my grandparents lived in Brevard County. I am deeply committed to Florida in all its beauty, purpose and people, and to District 8 and its people, industries and businesses.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• I am the most qualified candidate for Congress in District 8. My education and work history have been verified by the Florida Bar. My party affiliation is a matter of state record since the early 1990's. Being a native Floridian is also qualifying.
• I am the candidate most committed to fairly and uniformly protect everyone’s constitutional rights, and to benefit and improve the lives of all people in District 8, and our space industry and military complex, without regard to political party or beliefs.
• Merely expressing a belief in a goal or value is not enough. It takes having the appropriate education and professional experience to know what needs to be done, how to do it, and how to make it pass constitutional scrutiny; willingness to take action to achieve the goal or value; and excellent speaking and writing ability to persuade members of Congress to take that action. I meet all of these criteria.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Fair elections and voting rights

Social Security, and enhancing financial security

Protecting and enhancing people’s lives, health and safety

Enhancing the length and quality of our lives through various means, including healthcare

Protecting people’s freedom, constitutional rights, equal protection under the law, and equal opportunities

Clean water, air and food, and protecting the environment

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

For Congress, professional knowledge of the law and knowledge of pertinent facts that lead to better legislation; good judgment; good analytical and persuasive skills; high integrity and ethics; hard working and committed; fair and dedicated to the people and District.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

Hard-working professional with high integrity and ethics. Fair and principled. Well-educated in the law generally, including constitutional law, federal income taxation law, environmental law, administrative law. Experienced in interpreting and applying the law, as well as persuasion, writing and speaking. Avid reader with broad knowledge of subjects that would allow me to write and pass beneficial legislation. Analytical and innovative in thought. Committed to constitutional principles. Committed to improve the lives of people without regard to their political party or beliefs.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

To support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. To be truthfully faithful and loyal to the Constitution. To write bills and pass legislation that is constitutional and improves the lives of citizens and our processes of government. To diligently and meaningfully contribute to the process of preparing and finalizing a budget, as timely as possible without interruption to the government, especially the military. To set income taxation fairly and appropriately to fund a reasonable reduction of the national debt as well as all necessary and appropriate functions of government. To protect, support, and enhance the enjoyment of all persons’ constitutional rights. To protect the vital programs and functions of the federal government. To protect and enhance the lives of citizens, our country, and our natural environment.

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

It is the only federal government body whose members are each directly elected by the people of each district.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

If it’s experience in higher office—Congress, the Senate or Presidency—yes, if they were appropriately knowledgeable, skilled and effective to begin with. Otherwise, no. It is more important to have a legal education and experience in law, proven ability to analyze complex issues and facts; good judgment; high integrity and personal ethics, diligence, and a desire to improve people's quality of life—to provide the ability to excel at the work of Congress.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Genuine protection and better definition of constitutional rights

Reducing the national debt while funding the programs we expect of U.S. government

Strong public education, the foundation for science and progress

Protecting drinking water, waterways and estuaries

Protecting and restoring people’s ability to buy homes, and reducing homelessness—which we need to promptly correct

Reducing central authoritarianism and terrorism, which threaten our democracy and national security

Slowing climate change to avoid weather related disasters and related financial costs, and achieving a fair path with broad-based acceptance

Permanently retreating from oppression of women and girls, persons of color, and persons who are in need or different.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

True direct representation, as the Constitution requires for Congress, requires that each district have the right to decide whether its representative remains in office. It’s not about what other districts or politicians think about term limits. Other districts, or people who voted in the past, should not have a say through term limits, because that interferes with direct representation. Dedicated public servants can naturally get more effective with more time in service. Congress is a highly complex job, and the quality of congressional work would likely go down with term limits. We would become even more of an oligarchy (government by wealthy persons) than we already are. Term limits disadvantage ordinary people--everyone who must work for a living. Only the very wealthy could afford to work a few years in Congress, be termed out permanently, and not suffer financially. So, for Congress, I am opposed to term limits because they are inconsistent with the Constitution, not practical for working people, and not conducive of democracy for the people by the people, and not conducive of genuine expertise in public service.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Compromise on nonvital interests is necessary--but more important is having the analytical ability to identify desirable alternatives that might avoid compromise, experience making persuasive legal and factual arguments, and dealing with scientific facts and expert witnesses, and sufficient knowledge of constitutional law to know when certain policy proposals are precluded or required.

The Constitution says that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House. What role would this power play in your priorities if elected?

I would raise no taxes except for the top almost 1% of income earners-- billionaires and multi-millionaires in annual income--whose taxes have been reduced over and over since the 80's until our ability to reduce the national debt while still funding the federal government has been lost. Raise their rate(s) some, and eliminate massive charitable deductions, to restore our ability to reduce the national debt and fund customary and vital programs of the federal government.

How should the U.S. House use its investigative powers?

Constitutionally, fairly, to protect people, to protect our institutions of government, to gather information on the question of whether to impeach when proper and necessary, to achieve betterment, and to enable Congress to pass the most effective and enlightened legislation possible, in accordance with the best knowledge and practices known.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Democratic Environmental Caucus

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

We need to promote public access and knowledge of accurate, unbiased open data content (statistics) for spending and income taxation, wealth, nominal rates, actual paid rates of taxes, and the greatest amounts of charitable deductions, to show the public how and why money is spent, who benefits from tax dollars spent, to show the percentage of income actually paid as taxes at all levels of income, and other facts that would lead to greater tax fairness.

We need legislation to fund and conduct neutral, accurate, unbiased, and truthful fact finding within the federal government and related to regulated industries, to avoid bias arising out of a profit motive.

We need legislation to avoid situations of the "fox guarding the henhouse" and "revolving doors" in federal agencies.

Congress should hold agencies accountable to fulfill statutory authority, by codifying and clarifying standards and authority now that Chevron has been overruled.

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

2024 Elections

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Candidate

U.S. House Florida District 8

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Footnotes

[show]

Florida's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Ashley Moody (R)

Rick Scott (R)

Representatives

District 1

Jimmy Patronis (R)

District 2

Neal Dunn (R)

District 3

Kat Cammack (R)

District 4

Aaron Bean (R)

District 5

John Rutherford (R)

District 6

Randy Fine (R)

District 7

Cory Mills (R)

District 8

Mike Haridopolos (R)

District 9

Darren Soto (D)

District 10

Maxwell Frost (D)

District 11

Daniel Webster (R)

District 12

Gus Bilirakis (R)

District 13

Anna Luna (R)

District 14

Kathy Castor (D)

District 15

Laurel Lee (R)

District 16

Vern Buchanan (R)

District 17

Greg Steube (R)

District 18

Scott Franklin (R)

District 19

Byron Donalds (R)

District 20

Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D)

District 21

Brian Mast (R)

District 22

Lois Frankel (D)

District 23

Jared Moskowitz (D)

District 24

Frederica Wilson (D)

District 25

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D)

District 26

Mario Diaz-Balart (R)

District 27

Maria Elvira Salazar (R)

District 28

Carlos Gimenez (R)

Republican Party (22)

Democratic Party (8)