In this Dutch name, the surname is De Kort, not Kort.
| Daan de Kort | |
|---|---|
| Member of the House of Representatives | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 31 March 2021 | |
| Alderman in Veldhoven | |
| In office 14 May 2018 – 31 March 2021 | |
| Succeeded by | Vivianne van Wieren |
| Member of the Veldhoven municipal council | |
| In office 27 March 2014 – 14 May 2018 | |
| Succeeded by | Jos van Daele |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Adriaan Harry John de Kort (1992-07-15) 15 July 1992 (age 32) Veldhoven, Netherlands |
| Political party | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy |
| Alma mater | |
Adriaan Harry John "Daan" de Kort (born 15 July 1992) is a Dutch politician of the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Born in Veldhoven, he served on that town's municipal council starting in 2014, and he became an alderman four years later. He was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2021 Dutch general election.
De Kort is visually impaired, having lost 96% of his vision when he was fifteen years old.
Early life and education
De Kort was born in the North Brabant town of Veldhoven, an Eindhoven suburb. His parents are real estate brokers, and he has a brother. De Kort attended the secondary school Sondervick College at havo level and played football at the local club Rood-Wit. He studied public administration at the Avans University of Applied Sciences in 's-Hertogenbosch between 2010 and 2015, and he subsequently did a bachelor's in the same field, graduating in 2018. While studying at Avans, he co-founded the public administration study association s.v. Collegium.
De Kort helped create the website veldhovenviertfeest.nl, which was launched in 2013 and showed activities in the Veldhoven area.
Politics
Veldhoven
De Kort assisted the VVD's caucus in the Veldhoven municipal council between 2011 and 2014, and he co-founded the party's Veldhoven youth wing in 2012. He appeared sixth on the party list in the 2014 municipal election in Veldhoven. Even though the VVD won five council seats, he was elected due to having received enough preference votes. He successfully proposed that the North Brabant VVD publish its program for the 2015 provincial election in braille. De Kort became the VVD's vice caucus leader in the Veldhoven municipal council in May 2015 and succeeded Peter Saris as caucus leader in November 2016.
He was re-elected in 2018, when he was the VVD's lead candidate and when his party received a seven-seat plurality in the municipal council. De Kort helped form a new governing coalition and left the Veldhoven council to serve as an alderman of economic affairs, education, and sports in the new municipal executive. Aged 25, he became the youngest alderperson in Veldhoven's history. He managed to introduce two-hour free parking to the town's center, which was among his campaign promises. De Kort was also part of a working group of the European Blind Union, which investigated how voting could be made more accessible to visually impaired people.
House of Representatives
He ran for member of parliament in the 2021 general election, being placed 28th on the VVD's party list. De Kort was elected with 5,714 preference votes, and he was sworn into the House of Representatives on 31 March. He simultaneously stepped down as alderman.
He is on the Benelux Parliament and the Belgium contact group as well as on the Committees for Digital Affairs, for the Interior, for Kingdom Relations, and for Social Affairs and Employment. He was the VVD's spokesperson for intergovernmental relations, local governments finances, municipal mergers, government transparency, public sector working conditions, legal status of political officeholders, and nobility – all part of the BZK ministry – and Participation Act, Wajong benefit, Anw benefit, ESF+, reintegration, social affairs and employment in the Caribbean Netherlands, SVB, and developments and support of cooperation of the SUWI chain – all part of the SZW ministry. His specialties related to the BZK ministry were later in 2021 replaced by accessibility and labor conditions, and poverty was added the following year. De Kort was the VVD's lijstduwer in Veldhoven in the 2022 municipal elections. He launched a website in October 2022 to report government websites and applications that are inaccessible to people with a disability.
Following the November 2023 general election, De Kort became the VVD's spokesperson on primary and secondary education, poverty, and labor participation. Only labor participation remained in his portfolio after the Schoof cabinet was sworn in. He chairs the committee carrying out the parliamentary inquiry into the Dutch response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which commenced in February 2024.
Personal life
De Kort lives in his birth place of Veldhoven. As of 2023, he was engaged to be married.
He lost 96% of his eyesight in a few days time in March 2008, when he was fifteen years old, and he is now only able to see the contours of his immediate surroundings. The growth of one of his skull bones damaged his optic nerve. The bone was removed through surgery to prevent complete blindness. De Kort started performing as a disc jockey the following year under the stage name DJ Braille. He stopped appearing as a DJ shortly before he became an alderman. De Kort also recorded a four-episode podcast series called Eyeopener in late 2020 and early 2021 about his disability. In June 2022 – while in parliament – he started hosting the new monthly radio show De Kort in Den Haag (De Kort in The Hague) together with Theo Erkens about national politics on local station Kempen FM.
Electoral history
 | This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2023) |
| Year | Body | Party | Pos. | Votes | Result | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party seats | Individual | |||||||
| 2021 | House of Representatives | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy | 28 | 5,714 | 34 | Won | ||
| 2023 | House of Representatives | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy | 24 | 4,472 | 24 | Won | ||
References
- ^ "NOTULEN van de openbare vergadering van de raad van de gemeente Veldhoven, gehouden op 14 mei 2018 in het gemeentehuis te Veldhoven" [MINUTES of the public meeting of the council of the municipality of Veldhoven, held on 14 May 2018 in the town hall in Veldhoven] (PDF). Veldhoven (in Dutch). pp. 1 and 7–8. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- ^ De Kort, Daan (28 March 2014). "Daan de Kort maakt een bijzonder politiek debuut" [Daan de Kort makes a special political debut]. Eindhovens Dagblad (Interview) (in Dutch).
- "A.H.J. (Daan) de Kort" (in Dutch). Retrieved 14 October 2022.
- ^ "Daan de Kort". Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal. 31 March 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
- ^ Denk in mogelijkheden - De weg van Daan de Kort naar Den Haag [Think in possibilities – Daan de Kort's road to The Hague] (in Dutch). Daan de Kort. 13 March 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021 – via YouTube.
- Vivianne van Wieren (8 March 2021). "Daan de Kort. De politicus" [Daan de Kort. The politician]. Listen Notes (Podcast) (in Dutch). Eyeopener. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
- "Biografie, onderwijs en loopbaan van Daan de Kort" [Biography, education, and career of Daan de Kort]. Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
- ^ Adriaans, Ad (2 May 2008). "'Voetballen en FIFA-spel spelen met de playstation mis ik het meest'" [I miss playing football and FIFA the most']. Eindhovens Dagblad (in Dutch). p. 39.
- "Wie zijn de Leidse alumni in de Tweede Kamer?" [Who are the Leiden alumni in the House of Representatives?]. Universiteit Leiden (Press release) (in Dutch). 1 April 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
- "Studievereniging bij Bestuurskunde" [Study association for public administration]. Brabants Dagblad (in Dutch). 17 November 2012.
- "Veldhovenviertfeest.nl gelanceerd" [Veldhovenviertfeest.nl launched]. Eindhovens Dagblad (in Dutch). 27 December 2013.
- "Jongeren VVD starten eigen afdeling Veldhoven" [VVD youths start own Veldhoven chapter]. Eindhovens Dagblad (in Dutch). 31 January 2012.
- Van Lierop, Olga (12 December 2013). "VVD Veldhoven: 140 tekens voor verkiezingsprogramma" [Veldhoven VVD: 140 characters for election program]. Eindhovens Dagblad (in Dutch).
- "Gemeenteraad 19 maart 2014" [Municipal council 19 March 2014]. Databank Verkiezing (in Dutch). Kiesraad. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- "VVD-programma in braille dankzij Veldhovenaar" [VVD election program in Braille because of Veldhoven resident]. Eindhovens Dagblad (in Dutch). 6 January 2015.
- "Daan de Kort voorzitter van de VVD-fractie" [Daan de Kort chair of the VVD caucus]. Eindhovens Dagblad (in Dutch). 10 November 2016. p. 8.
- Van Dijk, Merlijn (22 March 2018). "VVD pakt twee extra zetels en wint in Veldhoven: 'Trots, trots en nog eens trots'" [VVD takes two additional seats and wins in Veldhoven: 'Proud, proud, and proud once more']. ED (in Dutch). Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- Burg, Rob (25 April 2018). "Gemeenten in Zuidoost-Brabant timmeren aan veiligere weg" [Southeast Brabant municipalities are working on safer road]. ED (in Dutch). Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- ^ Van Dijk, Merlijn (27 April 2018). "Blind en afgekeurd, toch wethouder" [Blind and declared unfit]. AD (in Dutch). Retrieved 21 June 2021.
- Gomes Meyer, Larissa (19 March 2021). "Aanstaand Kamerlid De Kort wil jongere generatie helpen" [Soon-to-be House member De Kort wants to help younger generation]. Studio040 (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 June 2021.
- Van Dijk, Merlijn (28 July 2018). "Advies voor stemmen door blinde" [Advice for voting by blind people]. Eindhovens Dagblad (in Dutch). p. 8.
- Elshout, Dominique (18 March 2021). "Veldhovense wethouder Daan de Kort (VVD) blij en vereerd met Kamerzetel: 'Dit is iets waar je stiekem op hoopt'" [Veldhoven alderman Daan de Kort (VVD) pleased with and honored by House seat: 'This is something you secretly hope for']. AD (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 June 2021.
- "Uitslag Tweede Kamerverkiezing 17 maart 2021 Proces-verbaal" [Results general election 17 March 2021 Report] (PDF). Kiesraad (in Dutch). 29 March 2021. p. 157. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
- "Daan de Kort". VVD (in Dutch). Retrieved 14 October 2022.
- De Koning, Ad (21 March 2022). "Prinsen trekt meeste stemmen in Veldhoven" [Prinsen gets most votes in Veldhoven]. ED. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
- "VVD-Tweede Kamerlid Daan de Kort lanceert meldpunt toegankelijkheid: 'Websites en apps van de overheid zijn niet toegankelijk genoeg'" [VVD House of Representatives member Daan de Kort launches website to report inaccessibility: 'Government websites and apps are not accessible enough']. NPO Radio 1 (in Dutch). 7 October 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
- "Portefeuilleverdeling" [Portfolio allocation]. People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (in Dutch). Retrieved 8 December 2024.
- "Parlementaire enquêtecommissie corona na hindernissen van start" [Parliamentary inquiry into corona commenced after obstacles]. NOS (in Dutch). 6 February 2024. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- Brink, Rick; De Bart, Bart (22 June 2023). "Van handicap naar politieke carrière met Tweede Kamerlid Daan de Kort" (Podcast). Onbeperkt (in Dutch). SWOM FM. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via Spotify.
- Peeters, Tonny (28 September 2012). "Blinde dj op Cult en Tumult" [Blind DJ at Cult en Tumult]. Eindhovens Dagblad (in Dutch).
- De Koning, Ad (15 January 2021). "Daan de Kort uit Veldhoven ziet slecht en maakt er een podcast over: 'Het moet gewoon goed klinken'" [Daan de Kort from Veldhoven is visually impaired and makes a podcast about it: 'It just has to sound good']. ED (in Dutch). Retrieved 23 June 2021.
- Evertse, Judith (1 June 2022). "Kamerlid Daan de Kort wil Haagse politiek dichterbij de Kempen brengen in nieuwe radiorubriek" [House member Daan de Kort wants to bring politics from The Hague closer to the Kempen in new radio show]. ED (in Dutch). Retrieved 3 August 2022.
- "Proces-verbaal verkiezingsuitslag Tweede Kamer 2021" [Report of the election results House of Representatives 2021] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 29 March 2021. pp. 14–15. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
- "Proces-verbaal van de uitslag van de verkiezing van de Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal 2023 d.d. 4 december 2023" [Report of the results of the election of the House of Representatives on 4 December 2023] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 4 December 2023. pp. 15–16. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
- 1992 births
- Aldermen in North Brabant
- Living people
- Dutch blind people
- Blind politicians
- Leiden University alumni
- Dutch MPs 2021–2023
- Dutch MPs 2023–
- Municipal councillors in North Brabant
- People from Veldhoven
- People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians
- Avans University of Applied Sciences alumni
- Dutch politicians with disabilities