Voter Profile: Georgia Voter Typifies Open-Mindedness of Kennedy Supporters

By Melissa Orrison, The Kennedy Beacon

Georgia voter Marshall McCart says electing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as president would offer a “reset of the current system.” With a history of voting independent or Libertarian, he said, “Lower-middle-class and lower-class people don’t have a chance with the current system.” 

Fourth of July week, I caught up with Marshall over the phone. I knew him from my hometown of Covington, Georgia, where he is a lifelong resident. Known as the filming location for classic TV shows In the Heat of the Night and The Dukes of Hazzard, it has transformed from rural to suburban in recent decades.

I had not seen him since musician Gregg Allman’s funeral in my current city, Macon, in 2017, when he interviewed me for his column in The Covington News. He has since left that paper and now focuses on his blog, The Piedmont Chronicles, which covers everything from national politics to local government corruption. Due to fears of censorship on other platforms, he now posts it to Substack.

I knew he and I were like-minded, and when I reached out to ask him if he was an RFK Jr. supporter, he responded enthusiastically that he was.

Marshall said his own voting history, as well as the wide range of people who support Kennedy, “speaks volumes to the Kennedy phenomenon.” He described Kennedy supporters as a cross section of society – centrist Democrats, moderate Republicans, Libertarians, those who have never voted – and said, “This is the most exciting thing.”

Marshall graduated from the University of Georgia in 1997, where he studied real estate. As a student in 1996, he voted in his first election for independent candidate Ross Perot. After that, he voted for the Libertarian candidate in each election, until voting for Donald Trump in 2020, a decision for which some people ridiculed him.

However, Trump disappointed him by failing to release documents related to the JFK assassination as promised. “If they released everything and it was proven that the US government killed our president, most citizens would start to wake up,” said Marshall.

Marshall, a husband and father, has talked about Kennedy to family and friends and says many agree with him. However, “I think some folks out there are still caught up in the duopoly. I hope between now and November they see the light.” He called Kennedy’s Real Debate “an amazing moment in political history.”

As a real estate professional, Marshall handles paperwork and licensing compliance at his firm and teaches pre-licensing and continuing education classes. He discussed corporations like BlackRock making the American dream impossible by purchasing single-family homes – a big issue for Kennedy as well. “We’ve got to do something,” he said. “They’re trying to recreate a feudal system.”

He expressed concern about the economic impact of more countries ditching the US dollar and called the $34 trillion national debt an “existential crisis” that only Kennedy is talking about. Marshall noted a recent trend of Trump copying some of Kennedy’s talking points, such as chronic disease, and predicted he will soon address some others. 

In his opinion, Kennedy’s position on the national debt, among other things, benefits Georgia as well as the nation. “This is the biggest thing right now,” he said. “Bobby is the only one that can take that on.” 

Marshall admits he was apprehensive about Kennedy’s VP pick, Nicole Shanahan, but after doing some research, he is now confident in her. . The open-mindedness and reliance on research of Kennedy supporters like him echoes Kennedy and Shanahan’s own willingness to consider opposing views and rely on data.

Marshall puts a positive spin on Kennedy’s attributes that are presented in a negative light by legacy media. He acknowledged that Kennedy’s spasmodic dysphonia may cause him to lose a few points in polls, but he said it also causes people to really listen to him and adds a “gravitas” to what he is saying. 

Similarly, when acknowledging Kennedy’s past struggles with addiction, he says the way he beat his addiction and has given back by helping others is what the American people really should be looking at.

Melissa Orrison is a journalist who co-presented “The Kennedy Tragedies Through a Risk Management Lens,” at In2Risk 2022 in San Francisco, California. She has also worked in higher education and tourism. She lives in Georgia with her husband and son.