Michael Steven Kennedy (born 1969) is an American physician, attorney, and politician. He has served as a Republican member of the

Utah Senate The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Utah Senate is composed of 29 elected members representing an equal number of senate districts. Each senate district is ...

, representing District 21 since 2023. Prior to redistricting he represented District 14 starting in 2021. He previously served as a member of the Utah House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. Kennedy was a candidate in the 2018 U.S. Senate election in Utah. He received the most votes among delegates at the Utah State Republican Convention (finishing 57 votes ahead of Mitt Romney) but was defeated by Romney in the subsequent primary by more than 40 percentage points for the Republican nomination.

Early life and career

Kennedy earned his BS from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

. While a student at BYU Kennedy took two years off to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He earned his MD from Michigan State University, and his JD from Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School. Kennedy lives in

Alpine, Utah Alpine is a city on the northeastern edge of Utah County, Utah. The population was 10,251 at the time of the 2020 census. Alpine has been one of the many quickly-growing cities of Utah since the 1970s, especially in the 1990s. This city is thi ...

, where he works as a family doctor for Premier Family Medical Group.

Political career

When District 27 incumbent Republican Representative John Dougall ran for state auditor and left the seat open, Kennedy was selected as one of two candidates from five by the Republican convention for the June 26, 2012 Republican primary which he won with 2,586 votes (52.9%) and won the November 6, 2012 general election with 14,335 votes (92.1%) against

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princi ...

candidate Scott Morgan. During the 2014 general election, Kennedy faced Democratic nominee William McGree, winning with 6,997 votes (88.4%). During the 2016 legislative session, Kennedy served on the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee, the House Health and Human Services Committee, and the House Political Subdivisions Committee. On March 9, 2018, Kennedy distributed a letter to members of District 27 announcing that he would not seek re-election for the Utah House of Representatives. He instead opted to run for the U.S. Senate. On April 22, 2018, Kennedy edged out Mitt Romney at the Republican Convention with 50.88% of the delegate votes. Romney came in a close second with 49.12%, allowing both to compete in the primary on June 26, 2018. Kennedy decisively lost the primary, however, garnering less than 30 percent of the vote. As a physician, Dr. Kennedy has worked with health care issues and opposes Obamacare. He has supported President Trump's immigration policies and admires

Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectua ...

as a jurist. Kennedy drew attention as a vocal supporter of gun rights, even meeting with UtahGunExchange.com, a private gun exchange that had a presence at

March For Our Lives March for Our Lives (MFOL) was a student-led demonstration in support of gun control legislation. It took place in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2018, with over 880 sibling events throughout the United States and around the world, and w ...

near the Utah Capitol and the 2018 Chicago Peace March and Rally, where their militaristic vehicle included a replica .50-caliber machine gun.

2016 sponsored legislation

Kennedy passed two of the four bills he introduced, giving him a 50% passage rate. He also floor sponsored three bills. He has a 92.7% lifetime rating from the Utah Taxpayers Association.http://www.utahtaxpayers.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/F2018-Scorecard.pdf Kennedy stresses that he has an "A rating" on gun legislation from the National Rifle Association.

References

External links

Official page
at the Utah State Legislature
Campaign site

Mike Kennedy
at

Ballotpedia Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Burn ...

Mike Kennedy
at the National Institute on Money in State Politics {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Mike Place of birth missing (living people) 1969 births Living people Brigham Young University alumni J. Reuben Clark Law School alumni Republican Party members of the Utah House of Representatives Michigan State University alumni People from Alpine, Utah Utah lawyers Latter Day Saints from Michigan American physicians Latter Day Saints from Utah Candidates in the 2018 United States Senate elections