West Virginia Press Association Staff Report
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. made a stop in the Mountain State on Saturday, to address some 1,000 supporters gathered at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center for the “Show Your Independence” voter rally.
After withdrawing from the Democratic party in early October, the 70-year-old Kennedy is running for the presidency as an independent.
“I’m really happy to be here in West Virginia,” Kennedy told the crowd of rally-goers in the Convention Center. “My family has a long and deep relationship with this state.”
Kennedy, who is the son of former U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and nephew of both former U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, explained how winning West Virginia was critical to his uncle’s presidential campaign in 1960.
“My family spent a lot of time in the state,” Kennedy said. “They claimed that they had shaken the hands of every citizen in West Virginia. But in that process, they came to understand the issues that are important in the state – the cataclysmic levels of poverty in this state, and the concerns of West Virginians. And they never forgot that.”
Now an environmental attorney, Kennedy has helped successfully litigate several high profile cases on behalf of West Virginia residents, including a $396 million verdict against DuPont for contamination from the company’s zinc plant in Spelter in 2007, and a $670 million settlement with DuPont for residents of West Virginia and Ohio in 2017, after a toxic chemical was released into their water supply.
“You have entire counties in parts of West Virginia that are saturated with these huge levels of dioxins,” Kennedy said. “Dioxins are the most toxic molecules known to man that are not radioactive. A single molecule of dioxin in your body can cause […] a grim inventory of diseases.”
“I see these things happening around me, and I see that people aren’t concerned about the poverty in this state,” Kennedy added. “That’s no longer a priority for our political leaders. President Biden […] sent $113 billion (to Ukraine). The entire budget of the EPA is $12 billion. That’s all we have for the environment in this whole country, and we’ve sent more than 10-times that to Ukraine.”
Kennedy then expressed his belief that the country’s current political leadership uses division to distract citizens from the real problems facing the nation.
“And as long as we’re fighting each other, we’re not going to do anything about the corporate control of both of the political parties and our government,” Kennedy said. “When the king and queen look out of their castle and they see all their subjects fighting each other, they go back to the banquet hall and they pop champagne corks because they know nobody’s coming over the wall for them to take back what they stole.”
If elected, Kennedy hopes to heal the country by focusing on what unites its citizens, adding, “I want everybody to climb over the castle walls to take back our country.”
While Kennedy’s campaign is considered by most political pundits to be a long shot, the groundswell of support from both Republicans and Democrats, if sustained through November, could see Kennedy emerge as a legitimate threat to President Biden and former President Trump’s presidential ambitions.
“My polling is outstanding,” Kennedy said. “I’m beating both President Trump and President Biden among all Americans in the battleground states, and everybody under 45-years-old. My favorability rating is 25 points ahead of either President Biden or President Trump.”
“These are the two least popular party nominees to ever run in modern American history,” Kennedy added.
As an independent candidate, Kennedy does not have to participate in the primary election process utilized by political parties when selecting their nominee. However, in order to appear on the ballots in all 50 states in November, thousands of signatures must be collected from potential supporters. While each state’s requirement varies, West Virginia requires 8,000 signatures for ballot placement. Currently, Kennedy has secured a position on the ballots in New Hampshire and Utah, and is expected to be placed on the ballots in most states in time for the general election.
