Saturday, September 20, 2014

Keegan Hankes: Longtime Neo-Nazi Robert Ransdell running for U.S. Senate

  Robert Ransdell, former regional coordinator for the neo-Nazi National Alliance (NA) in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a current coordinator for the similarly-minded National Alliance Reform and Restoration Group (NARRG) is campaigning as a write-in candidate for United States Senate in Kentucky under the slogan “With Jews We Lose!”

  Ransdell is running for the seat occupied by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Although he admits he has no chance to win, Ransdell is using his campaign as a publicity stunt to push his white nationalist and anti-Semitic views.

  “Equality does not exist,” says Ransdell in a YouTube video featured at the top of his campaign webpage. “There are differences between whites and blacks and blacks are more predisposed to criminal behavior and it doesn’t matter what kind of economic state they’re in. They are savages in a white nation, period.” The video, posted on Sept. 1, focuses almost entirely on “black-on-white” crime, a common talking point for white nationalists.

  Since announcing his candidacy on the hate forums Stormfront and Vanguard News Network (VNN) in late May, the Ransdell campaign has taken up residence at the domain whiteguard.us, named after an effort by late founder of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, to send young, fit, white males into cities to defend “society.”

  In that vein, Ransdell announced plans to soon have “white men on the streets” around the University of Cincinnati. “We are definitely out there to be a threat to those blacks who are a threat to our own,” said Ransdell. Despite the fact that the University of Cincinnati is located in Ohio, outside of his election district in Kentucky, Ransdell plans to move forward with his campaign promise of a “pro-white neighborhood watch.”

  In Northern Kentucky, Ransdell has begun distributing campaign signs, eventually planning to circulate around 200 featuring his “With Jews, We Lose!” slogan. There are already 20 displayed at busy intersections that have drawn the attention of local new stations.

  Ransdell has also announced plans to push his hateful views on 55KRC, a talk radio station in Cincinnati that syndicates conservative personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck. His program will run for for seven consecutive weeks starting Sept. 21. According to Ransdell, he’s been allowed onto this mainstream venue due to access laws, which allow federal candidates for office to purchase radio time at a discounted rate.

  55KRC did not respond to requests for comment.

  In addition to posting his anti-Semitic signs, Randsdell has been wreaking general havoc. Last Wednesday, he appeared at the University of Kentucky’s Constitution Day event. He was removed from the stage after delivering a white nationalist screed, while displaying his campaign signs, to an audience of high school and college students expecting to hear a speech about the principles of the constitution.

  “I was about to get to the Constitution before I was cut off,” Ransdell told a reporter for WKYT. “But I intended after traveling – I’m up here near Cincinnati – after traveling that far to be forthright about something I believe in.”

  Ransdell is receiving campaign help from at least one other notable white nationalist. Kyle Hunt, the organizer of the “White Man’s March,” which took place nationally, and feebly, last March, registered Ransdell’s campaign website domain on Sept. 5. Hunt had been quiet since a bizarre April post in which he suggested using Easter egg hunts to promote white supremacy.

  The Ransdell campaign has also been soliciting advice from Stormfront and VNN Forum members for months. Some of it has been quite critical. “Unless you’re running as a National Socialist,” writes ‘Donnie in Ohio,’ “I would tone down the references to NS [National Socialism] and pre-war Germany. It’s Kentucky, not Königsberg.”

  Despite the advice, Ransdell has shown no signs of toning down his platform or his proselytizing in the final weeks leading up to the November 4 election.

  This article was published by the Southern Poverty Law Center through its HateWatch blog.

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