Once on Kennedy’s VP Short List, Tricia Lindsay Still Wants to Heal the Divide

By Leah Watson, The Kennedy Beacon

As attorney Tricia Lindsay woke one morning this past March, it was just like any other morning. Soon, though, her phone began ringing, text messages filled the screen, and people sent screenshots of the news. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had just released a list of people he was considering as his vice presidential running mate, and Lindsay was one of them. 

Kennedy had warned her that the press had caught wind of his short list and that he would have to make a statement. It was, nonetheless, a shocking start to her morning to see her picture alongside several other potential nominees on a television screen. 

Dreading the media onslaught that surely awaited her, she wondered, humorously, “Should I even go outside?”

Lindsay was flattered that Kennedy thought of her as a potential running mate and she considered it a great compliment. She and Kennedy had presented on the same platforms before but had had what amounted to only brief conversations.

As an attorney, Lindsay has represented Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit organization founded by Kennedy that is dedicated to ending childhood health epidemics. Lindsay and Kennedy share a passion for dismantling corruption in government, ending censorship, and advocating freedom of speech and health freedom. 

Lindsay was not chosen to be Kennedy’s vice presidential nominee, but she is currently a candidate for office, seeking a seat in the New York State Senate’s 37th district, running against incumbent Shelley Mayer. 

Lindsay is accustomed to being on the defensive, trying to correct wrongs that have occurred. She is also a spiritual person and believes that she is led by God in all aspects of her life. When she pursues something, she believes it is a calling. 

Before becoming an attorney, Lindsay taught science to at-risk children for over 20 years. As an educator, she donned multiple hats in an effort to make children more engaged with the world around them and their places in it. She took her students on countless field trips, started after-school and weekend programs, and organized school events. Every day, she dressed in business attire to show her students how to present themselves on the outside with the same integrity they were building on the inside through education. Still, over the years, she grew dismayed by the inequities in the system.

“A lot of these children were marginalized,” said Lindsay in an interview with The Kennedy Beacon. “They were automatically written off by some of my colleagues…. It was to the point where they were being reduced. I watched kids falling prey to the justice system … some very innocently, others because of their circumstances. But at the end of the day, not understanding their rights and not understanding when those rights were violated.”

After witnessing the school-to-prison pipeline and watching the education system fail students on many fronts, Lindsay knew she needed to be part of making important and necessary changes. “I just realized that I had to do more … to really advocate.”

She decided to pursue a career in law, eventually opening her own practice as a civil rights attorney, and turning her attention to the lockdowns put in place during COVID-19. “I began speaking about the mandates and the lockdowns, and I immediately realized that the Constitution was under attack and that the attacks were just beginning,” she said. “All the measures they were putting in place didn’t make sense to me, scientifically [or] otherwise. So I immediately started to question it.” 

Lindsay saw how those mandates were systematically restricting people’s freedoms, and personally experienced her freedom of speech being violated when she was censored on social media. “Due process went out the window, [and] legal protection went out the window,” she said, recalling how forced vaccination violated medical freedom, while First Amendment rights were violated when people could not freely assemble and worship. She urged people to pay attention. “If we allow these mandates to become laws, we’re going to find ourselves with no way to defend ourselves.”

Lindsay had always been a leader and advocate. At a very young age, she knew that knowledge was power, and she used that knowledge to stand up for others. As a child, she was surrounded by people older than her and gained from their wisdom and experience. 

“I never had the herd mentality. Never. Matter of fact, any time I tried to do what everybody else was doing, I always got in trouble. I learned very quickly that was not my path,” said Lindsay, who takes pride in being labeled a conspiracy theorist.

“I am a conspiracy theorist, thank you very much,” she said. “[It] means I’m a thinker … I’m wondering what they’re planning, what’s coming next.”

In Lindsay’s eyes, COVID was the great equalizer. She saw people of various religions and races coming together, united for one cause: to defend their rights. 

In general, though, Lindsay believes this type of unification is often lacking. “We have to stop this narrative that seeks to divide us in so many ways: race, religion, creed, and color. Everything that we say that we stand against is what divides us in this country.” 

These invisible lines dig trenches in people’s lives and tend to dictate who they associate with, who they respect, and who they align with, which is one reason Lindsay respects Kennedy for running as a third-party candidate.

Third-party candidates give people other options beyond the two parties offering the same candidates – in this case, twice. Lindsay believes that too many people are dismayed with the current political system and thinks there’s much to be done to heal the country. 

“The respect America once held … needs to be restored,” she said. “We have a lot of work. We have to heal the divide. We have to bring people back together.”

Leah Watson is a reporter for The Kennedy Beacon. She has contributed articles to the Rangeley Highlander and is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College.