John Neely Kennedy (born November 21, 1951), is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Louisiana since 2017. A Democrat turned Republican, he served as the Louisiana State Treasurer from 2000 to 2017.
Born in Centreville, Mississippi, Kennedy graduated from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia School of Law before attending Magdalen College, Oxford. He was a member of Governor Buddy Roemer's staff before running for state attorney general in the 1991 election. In 1999, he was elected state treasurer; he was reelected to that position in 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015. Kennedy was an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Senate in 2004 and 2008. In 2007, he switched parties and became a Republican.
In 2016, when U.S. Senator David Vitter opted not to seek reelection, Kennedy once again ran for Senate. He finished first in the November nonpartisan blanket primary and defeated Democrat Foster Campbell 61–39% in the December runoff. He was sworn in on January 3, 2017. Kennedy was one of six Republican senators to object to the certification of Arizona's electors in the 2020 presidential election.
Kennedy is running for reelection to a second term in the 2022 election.


== Early life and education ==
Kennedy was born in Centreville, Mississippi, and raised in Zachary, Louisiana. After graduating from Zachary High School as co-valedictorian in 1969, he entered Vanderbilt University, where his interdepartmental major was in political science, philosophy and economics. He graduated magna cum laude.
At Vanderbilt, Kennedy was elected president of his senior class and named to Phi Beta Kappa. He received a Juris Doctor in 1977 from the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he was an executive editor of the Virginia Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif. In 1979, he earned a Bachelor of Civil Law degree with first class honours from Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied under Sir Rupert Cross and John H.C. Morris.


== Early career ==
Kennedy has written and published the following books and articles: Louisiana State Constitutional Law (LSU Publications Institute, Jan. 1, 2012), The Dimension of Time in the Louisiana Products Liability Act (42 Louisiana Bar Journal, Jan. 1, 1994), The Role of the Consumer Expectation Test Under Louisiana's Products Liability Doctrine (69 Tulane Law Review 117, Jan. 1, 1994), A Primer on the Louisiana Products Liability Act (49 Louisiana Law Review 565, Jan. 1, 1989), Assumption of the Risk, Comparative Fault and Strict Liability After Rozell (47 Louisiana Law Review 791, Jan. 1, 1987) and The Federal Power Commission, Job Bias, and NAACP v. FPC (10 Akron Law Review 556, Jan. 1, 1977).
Kennedy was a partner in the New Orleans law firm Chaffe McCall. He also served as an adjunct professor at Louisiana State University's Paul M. Hebert Law Center in Baton Rouge from 2002 to 2016.


== Early political career ==
In 1988, Kennedy became special counsel to Governor Buddy Roemer. In 1991, he was appointed as cabinet secretary and served in that post until 1992. In 1991, he was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for state attorney general to succeed the retiring William J. Guste.Following his first stint in state government, Kennedy returned to private law practice until 1996. That year, he was appointed secretary of the state Department of Revenue in the cabinet of Governor Mike Foster.


== Treasurer of Louisiana ==

Kennedy left the Foster administration when he was elected Louisiana State Treasurer in 1999, having unseated incumbent Democrat Ken Duncan, 621,796 votes (55.6%) to 497,319 (44.4%). Kennedy was reelected treasurer without opposition in 2003, 2007 and 2011. In 2015, he defeated his sole challenger with 80% of the vote.
In the 2004 election, Kennedy endorsed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry over George W. Bush.After being courted by the Republican Party for months, Kennedy announced in a letter to his constituents that he was leaving the Democratic Party and joining the Republicans, effective August 27, 2007. In his letter, he announced that he would run again for state treasurer.During his third term as state treasurer, Kennedy devised a 24-point plan by which the state could save money. Governor Bobby Jindal said Kennedy could "streamline" his own department. Many of Kennedy's ideas were derived from the Louisiana Commission for Streamlining Government, on which he served in his official capacity as state treasurer.


== U.S. Senate ==


=== Elections ===


==== 2004 ====

In 2004, Kennedy ran for the U.S. Senate seat held by John Breaux, who was retiring. He ran as a Democrat in the state's jungle primary, losing to Republican David Vitter and Democrat Chris John. Vitter won the runoff election.


==== 2008 ====

Kennedy ran for the Senate again in 2008, this time as a Republican. He was defeated, 52.1% to 45.7%, by incumbent Democratic Senator Mary Landrie