Shame on MetroNews for Drudging up West Virginia’s Sordid Election History

Charleston, W.Va – Shame on WV MetroNews and talk show host Hoppy Kercheval. West Virginia has been fighting for 60 years to rid itself of the image of fraudulent elections. And now, right in the middle of perhaps the most contentious election of our lifetimes, MetroNews thinks it is time to quip about John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) 1960 stolen Primary Election in West Virginia.

On Friday, May 10, while early voting was still underway and just four days before the Primary Election, MetroNews thought it a good idea to lionize JFK and laugh about how JFK stole the election from Hubert Humphrey in West Virginia. Both in his morning commentary, and again on his morning talk show—on the station that claims to be “The Voice of West Virginia”—Hoppy remarks on JFK’s and Kennedy family tactics during the 1960 election.

It is well-known that the Kennedy family illegally bought votes throughout southern West Virginia, and in fact, they bragged about it later. Both the Kennedys and Hoppy attributed the illegality to “West Virginia culture.” That's just “the way things were done in West Virginia,” according to Hoppy.

Well, for me and thousands of other West Virginia voters, the Kennedy election was no laughing matter, then or now. That attitude is what made West Virginia the laughingstock of the nation. For decades, fraudulent elections showcased by the Kennedy win decimated voter confidence and helped suppress businesses from locating here. No one wants to locate where elections are rigged, prosecutors and judges are bought, and the rule of law is nonexistent. That’s how things are done in third-world countries.

That election left a lasting impression on me as a young child. Because of that I grew up hating fraud and cheating. That passion for integrity motivated me to become an Eagle Scout, serve on the Honor Committee at West Point, and then to serve as a Commissioned Officer for 23 years in the US Army—the most respected institution in America.

The very stolen Kennedy election in 1960 in West Virginia was the catalyst for me to run, and win, as West Virginia’s Secretary of State: the Chief Election Officer for West Virginia. So, I bristle at MetroNews and anyone else who makes light of fraud in West Virginia elections.

I've worked too hard, alongside the wonderful clerks in our 55 counties, to clean up voting rolls, to implement Voter ID, to install the most secure election equipment in America, and to make West Virginia the model of election integrity for all the United States, just to have a news agency as prominent as MetroNews to make light of election fraud right in the middle of our 2024 election. Shame on you, MetroNews.