Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend (born July 4, 1951) is an American attorney who served as the sixth lieutenant governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003.

In 2010, Townsend became the chair of the non-profit American Bridge, an organization whose focus is to raise funds for Democratic candidates and causes.

[8] On August 29, 1965, the fourteen-year-old Kennedy was somersaulted by her horse while competing at Sea Flash Farms in West Barnstable, Massachusetts.

She was left unconscious and bleeding internally and was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital, located fifteen miles away.

[9] The night he was shot at the Ambassador Hotel, Kennedy and her two eldest brothers, Joseph II and Robert Jr., were being flown to Los Angeles aboard one of the planes in the Secret Service's presidential fleet named "the Jet Star".

[14] In 1982, she was admitted to the Massachusetts bar,[15] and worked as a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge A. David Mazzone.

After her failed congressional bid, Townsend went to work for the state government of Maryland, holding numerous posts including assistant Attorney General.

[21] Sauerbrey's allegations included ballot box stuffing, 100% voting in one precinct, voting by numerous dead people, and what she called the Kennedy "precedent"—that unproven rumors that John Kennedy had stolen the 1960 Presidential election proved that his niece Townsend had stolen this election.

[21] Sauerbrey hired an election specialist known for aggressive tactics then filed a lawsuit alleging that 50,000 votes had been cast illegally.

[21] By the time the hearing began in January 1995, however, Sauerbrey had backed away from the fraud charges and her claim centered on sloppy election procedures and 3,600 challenged ballots.

The judge ruled that about 1,800 votes had been cast in Baltimore by people whose names should have been purged from the rolls, but said that there was no clear and convincing evidence that fraud or procedural errors had affected the outcome.

During the campaign, Townsend was criticized for her choice of running mate, Admiral Charles R. Larson, a novice politician who had switched parties only a few weeks before.

[25] Ehrlich's running mate was Michael Steele, an African-American lawyer who had been chairman of the Republican Party of Maryland.

They specifically cited a lack of planning, claiming that she hastily booked campaign stops in rural areas hostile to her.

[27] Townsend wrote the book Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way, published in 2007.

[30] Townsend endorsed incumbent Democrat Joe Biden's reelection campaign in the 2024 United States presidential election over a third-party/independent challenge by her brother Robert.