Clint Keaveny

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

Clint Keaveny

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

April 5, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

Boston College, 2019

Personal

Birthplace

Santa Ana, Calif.

Profession

Content strategist

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal Facebook

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Clint Keaveny ran for election to the Dane County Board of Supervisors to represent District 24 in Wisconsin. He lost in the general election on April 5, 2022.

Keaveny completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Clint Keaveny was born in Santa Ana, California and moved to Madison, Wisconsin with his family in 1999. He attended the University of Southern California. He earned a bachelor's degree from Boston College in 2019.

Keaveny's career experience includes working in healthcare policy and communications in Washington, D.C. and working as a content strategist with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. In 2020, he was a communications adviser to Dr. Kristin Lyerly in her Wisconsin State Assembly race. In the spring of 2021, he led a grassroots campaign, No Bad Cops in Monona, which resulted in the Monona Police & Fire Commission rescinding an offer of employment to a police officer with a history of excessive use of force complaints. He has been affiliated with the Aztalan Cycle Club.

Elections

2022

See also: Municipal elections in Dane County, Wisconsin (2022)

General election

General election for Dane County Board of Supervisors District 24

Incumbent Sarah Smith defeated Clint Keaveny in the general election for Dane County Board of Supervisors District 24 on April 5, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Sarah Smith (Nonpartisan)	73.6	1,950
		Clint Keaveny (Nonpartisan)	26.1	690
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	8

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,648 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

The primary election was canceled. Incumbent Sarah Smith and Clint Keaveny advanced from the primary for Dane County Board of Supervisors District 24.

Endorsements

To view Keaveny's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2022

Video for Ballotpedia

Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released March 7, 2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Clint Keaveny completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Keaveny's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I was raised in Madison and Monona in a working class family. I grew up playing sports, and I still love finding new athletic endeavors to throw myself into. Growing up in a paycheck-to-paycheck family motivates my work in politics and public policy: my goal is always to find ways to make life better for the families and individuals that are just getting by.

After high school, I started college at the University of Southern California and ultimately graduated from Boston College with a degree in Political Science. I started my career in Washington, DC with the goal of working on healthcare reform.

I moved back home at the beginning of COVID-19 and have involved myself in local and state-level political advocacy since then, largely working with underdog political candidates that I believe in. Last Spring, I led the “No Bad Cops in Monona” campaign which prevented the hire of a police officer with a history of excessive use of force complaints.

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?

• We need a new approach to preventing the toxic blue green algae blooms on our lakes. First, we need to utilize Clean Beach Treatment Systems as a short-term measure to ensure that children and families can swim at the beach all summer long. To improve the health of the lakes as a whole, we need to create economic incentives for farmers to prevent runoff, engage the community to reduce suburban fertilizer use, and invest in new technologies that will make sustainable farming more cost effective.
• Dane County must take immediate action to improve the housing supply and make rent more affordable for working families. Specifically, we should work with Madison and its surrounding municipalities to increase density along upcoming Bus Rapid Transit line and create affordable, walkable communities.
• We must strengthen the hiring process for law enforcement to ensure that we have high-quality officers that we can trust and depend on. Too often, bad officers move from community to community without consequences for their actions. Besides strengthening the hiring and screening process, Dane County should assist municipalities with their recruitment efforts to create a more diverse pool of candidates.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Healthcare policy is my #1 passion – in a country as wealthy as the United States, no one should have to go without the treatment they need, or choose between paying rent and paying for their medicine. This is a policy area that’s difficult to address on the local level, but there are things that can be done. Regulating predatory ambulance billing practices and increasing the number of local mental health providers would be a great start.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

Bertrand Russell’s essay “Free Thought and Official Propaganda” is a moving defense of the importance of freedom of thought and speech. I am especially fond of his advocacy for skeptical thinking: “what we need is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out.”

This essay helped me develop the courage to accept my own lack of belief in the religion I was brought up in, and its principles are equally relevant in politics. One of the best examples of conviction in free thought is Rep. Barbara Lee’s lone No vote against authorizing the War in Afghanistan on September 14, 2001.

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

Proactive community engagement is essential for elected officials. Meeting with community members, hearing their concerns, and establishing ongoing dialogue is foundational to good government. Because most members of the community don’t closely track ongoing government initiatives, it’s important that elected leaders regularly update their community and give them opportunities to weigh in.

Additionally, humility and eagerness to learn are important characteristics for elected officials. Mistakes and misunderstandings are part of life, and elected leaders must always be willing to change their view in light of new evidence.

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

Supervisors on the Dane County Board need to proactively pursue policies that address our most pressing needs, including protecting the environment, improving public safety, and addressing the cost of living crisis. Maintaining the status quo is not good enough – hundreds of thousands of people will continue to move to Dane County in the coming decades, and we need immediate action to defend and improve quality of life as our community grows.

Equally importantly, Supervisors need to maintain robust community engagement, ensuring that our community members are informed and as involved as possible. Creating a culture of civic engagement is essential for the success of our government.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was as a Little League umpire, which I started in 8th grade and did for three or four years. In high school I was also a pizza delivery driver, carpet cleaner, and manual laborer. In college I was an RA, a manual laborer, and a research assistant.

After college, my first job was as a paralegal at a healthcare law firm, appealing insurance denials on behalf of hospitals. I did that for six months before moving into a role at a strategic communications firm that works with digital health companies and progressive causes.

What is your favorite book? Why?

My favorite book is often the one I’m reading right now. I highly recommend “A Confederacy of Dunces,” by John Kennedy Toole – it is absolutely hilarious.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

The struggle to afford healthcare through my adolescence and early adulthood became a defining part of my worldview. My family went into debt to pay for my orthopedic surgeries in high school, and in college, I lived with serious chronic back pain that I could not afford to treat.

Living with this pain motivated me to dedicate my life to improving the American healthcare system so that everyone gets the treatment they need, when they need it, regardless of income.

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.

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Dane County Board of Supervisors District 24

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