Interview with Kelly Horwitz by Andrea L’Hommedieu

Biographial Note

Kelly (Riordan) Horwitz was born in Lewiston, Maine, on August 28, 1967, and grew up in nearby Livemore Falls. Her father, John Peter Riordan, was a truck diver, and her mother, Vickie Johnson Riordan, worked for a construction company at the paper mill in Livemore Falls. Kelly attended Livemore Falls High School and Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, and earned her degree in education and social policy at Northwestern University. She became involved in politics in college, and when George Mitchell became Senate majority leader in 1988, Horwitz began working for Mitchell in the mail room. She moved on to work in Mitchell’s office as a legislative correspondent, a speech writer, a member of his floor staff, and helped organize his reelection campaign. In the spring of 1990, she was selected by the Maine State Society for the Cherry Blossom Festival. She left Mitchell’s staff to attend law school at the University of Virginia and later worked on a vetting committee for vice presidential candidates for Al Gore. At the time of this interview, she was an attorney practicing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Summary