Rebekah Kennedy
Encyclopedia
Rebekah Kennedy is an Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 politician affiliated with the Green Party and was a candidate for U.S. Senate in the 2008 election cycle
United States Senate election in Arkansas, 2008
The 2008 United States Senate election in Arkansas was held on November 4, 2008. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Pryor decided to run for a second term. No Republican filed to challenge him. His only opponent was Green party candidate Rebekah Kennedy...

. She unsuccessfully ran for State Attorney General
Arkansas Attorney General
The Arkansas Attorney General is an executive position and constitutional officer within the Arkansas government. The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement/legal officer and lawyer for Arkansas. The position is elected every four years, e.g...

 during the 2006 and 2010 election cycles.

Early life and education

Kennedy was born in Heber Springs, Arkansas
Heber Springs, Arkansas
Heber Springs is a city in Cleburne County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 6,432 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Cleburne County.-Geography:Heber Springs is located at ....

 into a family which has been in Arkansas for generations. Upon graduating from high school, Kennedy attended the University of Central Arkansas
University of Central Arkansas
The University of Central Arkansas is a state-run institution located in the city of Conway, the seat of Faulkner County, north of Little Rock and is the fourth largest university by enrollment in the U.S. state of Arkansas, and the third largest college system in the state. The school is most...

 in Conway
Conway, Arkansas
Conway is the county seat of Faulkner County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 58,908 at the 2010 census, making Conway the seventh most populous city in Arkansas. It is a principal city of the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area which had...

, where she earned a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

. She then attended the University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...

 School of Law
University of Arkansas School of Law
The University of Arkansas School of Law is the law school of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a state university. It has around 445 students enrolled in its Juris Doctor and Master of Law programs and is home to the federally-funded National Agricultural Law Center and the...

 at Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...

, where she earned her J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 degree. In 2004, she was admitted to the Arkansas Bar Association.

Beginning in 2004, Kennedy practiced law as an associate of the firm of Pryor, Robertson, Beasley & Smith in Fort Smith
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...

. Her practice includes work in the area of civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 and on behalf of victims of discrimination in the workplace
Employment discrimination
Employment discrimination is discrimination in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation. It includes various types of harassment....

. In 2008, Kennedy departed from the firm and founded the Law Office of Rebekah Kennedy.

Political involvement

In 2001, Kennedy served on the Committee to Elect Sarah Marsh to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2002, she became the Green Party of Arkansas
Green Party of Arkansas
The Green Party of Arkansas is the state party organization for Arkansas of the Green Party of the United States.With the November 2008 election of Richard Carroll as representative for the 39th District in the Arkansas House of Representatives, the Arkansas Green Party gained its first ever state...

's elections co-chair; she held this position until 2007 when she became the party's public relations co-chair. In 2008 she relinquished the latter position to return to being elections co-chair.

Kennedy was perhaps best known for her 2006 bid for Arkansas Attorney General
Arkansas Attorney General
The Arkansas Attorney General is an executive position and constitutional officer within the Arkansas government. The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement/legal officer and lawyer for Arkansas. The position is elected every four years, e.g...

, which garnered 4.4% of the vote.

In 2008, the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 declined to nominate a candidate in the 2008 Senate election in Arkansas. Thus, Kennedy became the sole challenger of Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 Senator Mark Pryor
Mark Pryor
Mark Lunsford Pryor is the senior United States Senator from Arkansas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party and former Attorney General of Arkansas....

 in his first race as an incumbent. Kennedy received a 206,504 votes for 20.54% of the vote . This is the highest percentage of the vote for any Green Party candidate running for U.S. Senate ever, and her 206,504 votes is the second most http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2008/10/09/a-short-history-of-green-party-us-senate-races/. Kennedy's campaign besides from being record breaking in the Green Party was also the strongest showing of any Independent or third party candidate running for the US senate in 2008
United States Senate elections, 2008
Elections for the United States Senate were held on November 4, 2008, with 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate being contested. Thirty-three seats were regular elections; the winners were eligible to serve six-year terms from January 3, 2009, to January 3, 2015, as members of Senate Class II...

.

Kennedy unsuccessfully ran for the office of Attorney General
Arkansas Attorney General
The Arkansas Attorney General is an executive position and constitutional officer within the Arkansas government. The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement/legal officer and lawyer for Arkansas. The position is elected every four years, e.g...

 in the 2010 election cycle as the Green Party nominee. She faced one-term Democratic incumbent, Dustin McDaniel
Dustin McDaniel
Dustin McDaniel is the current Attorney General of Arkansas. A member of the Democratic Party, he assumed office on January 9, 2007, succeeding Mike Beebe, who became Governor of Arkansas.- Background :...

, the state Republican party did not fielding a candidate.

External links

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