Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of articles analyzing the Republican candidates for Utah‘s open 3rd Congressional District seat.
Washington, D.C., institutions are sick, according to State Senator Mike Kennedy. But the party-endorsed candidate for Utah’s 3rd District Republican primary says the cure for Congress doesn’t lie in the shock therapy of partisan clashes.
Kennedy, a practicing physician and trained attorney, is more likely to prescribe the attentive patient treatment and persuasive advocacy that he says served him well in the state legislature over the past decade. He believes that building relationships, not bombastic rhetoric, is key to ending paralysis on issues like border security, national debt and inflation, and to healing the country.
But that does not mean turning a blind eye to the magnitude of the nation’s ills.
“We need to recognize that there is a problem,” Kennedy said. “And the problem is elected officials… who do not respond to the daily needs of our citizens in the form of unnecessary purchases and spending, creating inflationary trends.”
Having “diagnosed” the problem, Kennedy said the best way to “deal with it” is to send the right kind of problem-solver back to Washington, D.C., to replace outgoing Rep. John Curtis.
“We need a coalition of people who are willing to really make a difference and not be braggarts and fundraisers and disagree with the approach they’re going to take,” Kennedy said.
As a family doctor practicing in Lindon, Kennedy says he knows what it takes to heal the individual. And as a former malpractice attorney, Kennedy said he has seen how the law helps heal society.
The two qualifications can come together at a higher level, Kennedy says, if 3rd District Republicans send the only sitting lawmaker in the race to represent them in Washington, D.C., to try to “heal that place.”
Mike Kennedy, candidate for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District, is photographed during an interview with the Deseret News at the Deseret News office in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. | Megan Nielsen, Deseret News
Kennedy: Reform Wasteful Programs to Start Healing America
Fittingly, Kennedy said a healthier lifestyle for the federal government starts with health care reform. While fights on Capitol Hill often focus on the budget, they rarely touch on the mandatory spending programs that contribute most to the country’s deficits, Kennedy said.
“I know Medicare and Medicaid and how there are, time and time again, systems that I consider redundant or unnecessary that are costing our taxpayers billions of dollars,” Kennedy said. “If I can build that coalition that I keep talking about with my legislative colleagues… we can eliminate programs that make no difference in the quality of care.”
One way Kennedy wants to improve Medicaid (government-provided health insurance for low-income families) is to eliminate the incentive for states to grow Medicaid rolls while relying on the federal government to shoulder the additional costs. Instead, the state should receive funding through block grants for Medicaid that it will be more careful in distributing, Kennedy said.
“There are ways to pay the full cost of Medicaid needs, but then have the state use its innovative capabilities to use Medicaid dollars more effectively,” Kennedy said.
Medicare, which provides health insurance to people with disabilities and those over age 65, is plagued by provider programs that increase costs for taxpayers without changing health care outcomes, Kennedy said. They do this by obtaining lists of Medicare beneficiaries and offering them free and “completely unnecessary” products that have been included in Medicare payment programs, according to Kennedy.
“That’s just one of many programs that are exactly the same,” Kennedy said.
But Kennedy is no slash-and-burn libertarian.
He believes there is room for smart government programs that “give a hand, not a handout.” For example, he believes a better use of Medicare funds could be to encourage seniors to go to the gym and exercise rather than “passively purchasing” products offered by vendors.
“The reality is that we can advance the ball smoothly in this material,” Kennedy said. “I don’t expect cancer chemotherapy or immediate surgical treatments for everything. Some of this is incremental and we have to approach it that way.”
Kennedy’s legislative record
This gradual approach and willingness to “work with all kinds of people with different opinions” gave Kennedy one of his most notable legislative achievements, he said.
In 2023, after several failed attempts, Kennedy successfully sponsored a bill banning transgender surgeries and treatments for Utah children.
“That bill is a good example of a thoughtful civil process, working with all parties on both sides on a variety of complicated issues,” Kennedy said.
Three months after the bill was passed, Kennedy’s home was vandalized in retaliation.
Kennedy was first elected to the state legislature as a House representative in 2012. He left to run for the United States Senate against Mitt Romney, where he won in the Republican Party nominating convention before losing in the primary.
Kennedy returned in 2020 by winning a special election for the Utah Senate, where he represents about 20% of the population of the 3rd District in northern Utah County, Kennedy said.
Now that he has turned his gaze to Congress, Kennedy promises his potential constituents that he will seek creative solutions to the country’s most difficult problems. But he says he can’t promise that he will find willing partners.
What is Mike Kennedy’s position on border security in Ukraine?
Many of his potential colleagues in Congress are too concerned with raising money and winning re-election to recognize common ground on issues like immigration, Kennedy said.
Sustained chaos at the southern border demands a national security response, Kennedy said, and he believes it could unite a majority of lawmakers around increased fentanyl screening measures and a policy that automatically bars immigrants from entering the United States if they are found “with a trail.” of fentanyl in them.”
On foreign policy, Kennedy supports selling military resources to Ukraine or forcing Russia to pay for it by seizing its assets. But Kennedy places limits on sending American troops to the beleaguered ally.
His willingness to back Ukraine in its defensive war against Russian President Vladimir Putin comes from statements by legislative leaders with top-secret reports saying that if the United States does not support Ukraine, then Putin’s expansionist ambitions will require a much larger American response in the future.
“I am very concerned that we could be at the beginning of World War III,” Kennedy said. “Brutal dictators should be hit hard from the start to prevent them from further expanding and making the problem worse.”
Mike Kennedy, candidate for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District, is photographed during an interview with the Deseret News at the Deseret News office in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. | Megan Nielsen, Deseret News
Convention winner
Kennedy is the only candidate on the 3rd District primary ballot who did not attempt to qualify by collecting signatures. Instead, he advanced to the primary after speaking to every state delegate he could and winning their support in a landslide at the state Republican Party nominating convention on April 27 with 61.5% in the round. end of voting.
The victory makes him the party’s endorsed candidate and has brought “wind to the sails” because of the party’s access to resources, money and volunteers, Kennedy said. The candidate also has the endorsement of Utah’s top legislative leaders, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams (R-Layton), and Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper.
Before the convention, Kennedy had raised more money than any of his competitors, with more than $341,000 in total contributions, not including a $156,000 loan he gave to his campaign. But some of his opponents have invested much more of his personal wealth in the race.
Former Sky Zone CEO Case Lawrence has poured nearly $1.3 million of his own money into his campaign, making him the highest-dollar candidate in the race, closely followed by Roosevelt Mayor, JR Bird, with a loan of 1 million dollars.
Voters will decide between five candidates in the June 25 Republican primary, including Kennedy, Lawerence, Bird, state Auditor John Dougall and business litigator Stewart Peay.
On November 5, the Republican candidate will face Democratic candidate Glenn Wright.
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