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.[4] His parents are real estate brokers, and he has a brother.[5][6] De Kort attended the secondary school
Sondervick College at
havo level and played football at the local club Rood-Wit.[7][8] 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.[4][9] While studying at Avans, he co-founded the public administration study association s.v. Collegium.[10]
De Kort helped create the website veldhovenviertfeest.nl, which was launched in 2013 and showed activities in the Veldhoven area.[11]
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.[4][12] He appeared sixth on the
party list in the
2014 municipal election in Veldhoven.[13] Even though the VVD won five council seats, he was elected due to having received enough
preference votes.[2][14] He successfully proposed that the North Brabant VVD publish its program for the
2015 provincial election in
braille.[15] 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.[16]
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.[17] 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.[18][19] Aged 25, he became the youngest alderperson in Veldhoven's history.[19] He managed to introduce two-hour free parking to the town's center, which was among his campaign promises.[20] 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.[21]
House of Representatives
He ran for member of parliament in the
2021 general election, being placed 28th on the VVD's party list.[22] 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.[23]
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.[4] 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.[24] De Kort was the VVD's lijstduwer in Veldhoven in the
2022 municipal elections.[25] He launched a website in October 2022 to report government websites and applications that are inaccessible to people with a disability.[26]
De Kort lives in his birth place of
Veldhoven.[4] As of 2023, he was engaged to be married.[29]
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.[5][8][19] De Kort started performing as a
disc jockey the following year under the stage name DJ Braille.[30] 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.[31] 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.[32]
^
abDe 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).
^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.
^
abAdriaans, 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.
^"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.