Newspaper Articles


Clarksburg Exponent
April 7, 1960

Humphrey Plans to Open Clarksburg Headquarters

U. S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota will have headquarters in Clarksburg, according to word sent to Democrats here.

William L. Jacobs, a Parkersburg attorney, has been appointed by the Humphrey-for-President Committee of West Virginia as chairman of the Committee for the Northern part of the state.

It is Jacobs' intention, it was learned, to open headquarters in Clarksburg, probably at one of the local hotels. A vigorous campaign for Senator Humphrey will be waged from the headquarters here.

Jacobs is expected in Clarksburg within the next few days.


Sen. Kennedy Vote-Drive Is Planned Here

Brother Bob is in Clarksburg for Campaign

Bob Kennedy Says His Brother Will Please Labor and Farm Groups of State

By a Staff Writer

No stone will be left unturned in Senator Jack Kennedy's campaign to defeat Senator Hubert H. Humphrey in the May 10 West Virginia primary.

The authority for that statement is his brother, Bob Kennedy, who spent Wednesday night in Clarksburg directing organization of the Central and Northern West Virginia forces for Kennedy and helping with plans for Kennedy headquarters in Clarksburg.

Approximately 100 well-wishers were in the lobby of the Stonewall Jackson Hotel when the youthful Bob Kennedy arrived from Benedum Airport, accompanied by Victor Gabriel, a local Democratic leader who headed those greeting him at the airport.

Tired and without sleep for more than 24 hours and fresh from the Wisconsin battle ground, Bob Kennedy showed the results of strain and overwork as he answered questions during a brief press interview at the hotel. He left Wisconsin Tuesday night and earlier Wednesday had made a stop in Charleston.

Asked concerning the results of the Wisconsin primary, Bob Kennedy replied:

"I think that is was my brother's greatest political victory of his career:to conquer that state, which borders on the State of Minnesota (Humphrey's home state) by more than 100,000. He got some 57 per cent of the vote. It was fantastic."

Bob Kennedy said that he personally had spent about three months in Wisconsin working in behalf of his brother, Senator John F. Kennedy. Earlier, he had spent some time in West Virginia, and Senator Kennedy and another brother, Ted Kennedy, also have been in West Virginia. Ted Kennedy was a visitor in Clarksburg a few weeks ago.

Senator Kennedy, his brother Bob revealed, will spend a great deal of time in West Virginia between this date and the May 10 state primary, and Bob Kennedy said that he also will be in West Virginia much of that time.

Bob, who attained national fame personally as counsel for the Senate Rackets Committee, believes that his brother Jack will receive the wholehearted support of the laboring people in West Virginia.

"I think that labor should be attracted to him," the young lawyer commented. "First, because of his record:his record of fighting for the working man and the members of the union. I think they would be more attracted to him than to anyone else. We have found that in other areas of the country, particularly Wisconsin."

Bob didn't seem perturbed by a question concerning religion and the Kennedy-Humphrey contest in West Virginia.

The question was: "How do you think your brother (a Catholic) will run with the heavy Protestant vote in West Virginia?"

The answer came emphatically.

"Jack did extremely well with the Protestant vote in the State of Wisconsin, and it seems to me that people are Americans first and vote for a person based on his record, his integrity and his courage, and not on what church he intends to go to on Sunday."

Bob Kennedy thinks his brother Jack will do correspondingly well with the farm vote in West Virginia. He commented:

"Jack did very well in the farm areas of Wisconsin, especially the ones that didn't border on Minnesota. There were sixteen farm counties and he carried nine of them."

Bob Kennedy's concluding remarks of the interview were: "I think he (Jack) has national appeal and we would anticipate that he would do well in West Virginia."

Bob Kennedy was accompanied here by Lawrence O'Brien, one of his brother's campaign directors. He will leave early this morning by Capital Airlines for Cleveland, Ohio, where he is scheduled to deliver an address, and he will go to Indianapolis, Indiana for another address before returning to West Virginia to devote a lion's share of his attention to the West Virginia campaign.

While at the hotel, he was invited to visit briefly with a Shrine group meeting three. He also was scheduled to spend some time with approximately 100 persons who heard of the pending visit and gathered at the hotel. Then was to come the difficult job of getting the groundwork ready for a hard-fought campaign in Central and Northern West Virginia.

Leaders from Monongalia, Harrison, Marion, Lewis, Taylor, Mineral, Hancock, and other counties were on hand to take part in the organizational discussions.

These discussions, with Bob Kennedy present, were coming just 24 hours after the polls closed in Wisconsin and they served as positive evidence of the heavy fight Jack Kennedy will wage against Senator Humphrey in West Virginia. Meanwhile, the word was out unofficially that Senator Humphrey and his supporters will swing into an aggressive campaign in an effort to make West Virginia the stopping place for the Kennedy bandwagon.

The results of this West Virginia political skirmishing will be of interest in every corner of the nation, for the results may have much to do with the selection of the next President of the United States.


| Campaign Summary |
| Visits by Date | Visits by County |

| Advertisements and Cartoons | Audio-Visual | Documents |
| Newspapers | Oral Histories | Photographs | Reminiscences | Speeches |


West Virginia Archives and History