J. Kenneth Blackwell

In an op-ed for the Patriot Post published on September 15, 2011, Blackwell called Palestine “Terroristan” and challenged science that supports the conclusion that climate change is a man-made phenomenon. Blackwell praised a Danish scientist who found a connection between solar activity and the earth’s temperature, adding, “It's worth noting that the Danes stood up to China on human rights, even when the Communists in Beijing threatened to crush Denmark ‘like a little bird.’ The Danes published those cartoons of you know who [Muhammad] that set off riots throughout the world by followers of the religion of peace.”

In a September 8, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell claimed that Congressman John Lewis (D-GA)—who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech—intended to incite violence within the crowd with his original planned speech. In the actual speech Lewis delivered that day, he called for the crowd to nonviolently support the civil rights movement by “march[ing] with the spirit of love and with the spirit of dignity that we have shown here today.” Blackwell’s editorial portrayed a nonviolent, pro-union rally on Labor Day 2011 as “an incitement to riot.”

Blackwell authored an August 19, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, criticizing President Barack Obama’s role in the death of Osama bin Laden. He wrote that what was missing from the raid (ordered by President Obama) was “presidential leadership.” Blackwell further opined that, “The real reason why President Obama has hurriedly put the bin Laden raid behind him is the same reason why George McGovern could not point to his wonderful combat record, or even let others point to it: The Democratic Party houses a large and influential pacifist element.”

Blackwell believes that the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review process, which produces reports assessing human rights conditions in all member countries, is being used by European countries to diminish United States sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere by imposing human rights conditions on Latin American countries. In an August 6, 20011 op-ed for the Daily Caller, Blackwell said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “has done nothing to uphold the Monroe Doctrine and nothing to defend our Latin American allies from this new form of European imperialism … Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are on the side of the European imperialists.”

On July 12, 2023 Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted requested $332,000 in taxpayer money to pay for attorney’s fees for plaintiffs who sued then-Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell over his conduct during the 2004 presidential elections. The plaintiffs, who alleged that Blackwell violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, settled the lawsuit with the state in 2009.

In a June 12, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell claimed—without any evidence—that “San Francisco gay activists” were behind a local ballot initiative to ban infant circumcision.

In an April 12, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell claimed that President Obama was involved in orchestrating the populist uprising in Egypt, writing, “What was the point of going to a nest of Muslim Brotherhood activity to deliver that 2009 Obama address if not to puff up their stature and their influence? Osama bin Laden tells us that Arabs like to go with ‘the strong horse.’ Did Mr. Obama saddle up Mubarak or the Muslim Muslim [sic] Brotherhood as the strong horse with that Cairo speech?”

In a March 23, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell, upset that a book about the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan focused too little on Reagan’s policies as president, wrote, “Just imagine if Hinckley had so grievously wounded Jimmy Carter. Can anyone believe that that would have made 18% mortgage rates go away, forget ‘America held hostage’ in Iran, chill out while lining up for gasoline, or learn to enjoy the era of limits and malaise?” The book in question, “Rawhide Down,” was critically acclaimed and well received by reviewers with diverse viewpoints, including Bill O’Reilly and Bob Woodward.

In a March 10, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell expressed his belief that democracy would never be established in the Middle East because “democracy requires not only religious liberty, but representative institutions, a vibrant civil society, respect for property rights, the rule of law, and a free and open press. The Middle East has no history of these building blocks of democracy. There are other cultural practices that bode ill for democracy.” Blackwell also claimed that “84% of Egyptians say anyone who departs from Islam should be killed … And there is a real danger they will come under the sway of the Muslim Brotherhood.” He concluded by describing Middle Easterners thusly: “Edmund Burke said it well: ‘Men of intemperate minds cannot be free; their passions forge their fetters.’ There's a reason no state in the Middle East—except Israel—has been free thus far.”

Blackwell tweeted “I am disappointed with ACU's decision to team up with GOProud” and re-tweeted “homosexuality is not conservative” in response to news that the American Conservative Union (ACU) would allow the GOProud organization to participate in the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

In a January 11, 2024 op-ed for the Patriot Post entitled “The Constitution Did Not Condone Slavery,” Blackwell claimed, “There was no mention of slavery in the Constitution. The framers were unwilling to admit in the federal charter there could be property in men.” To the contrary, the Constitution contained the three-fifths compromise that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for representation and tax purposes. Additionally, Article 1, Section 9 and Article 5 allowed the continued importation of slaves and prohibited the Congress from banning slavery until twenty years after ratification of the Constitution. Finally, Article 4, Section 2 prohibited citizens from providing assistance to escaped slaves (before being superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery).

In a December 17, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell urged the Senate to not ratify the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, because “President Obama has never disavowed his socialist convictions. Even the Washington Post refers to him as a socialist. Isn't it time we had a full airing of all of this before we ratify a treaty with the rulers of the Kremlin?”

In an October 22, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “Today, tragically, nearly 40% of our children are born out-of-wedlock. And big government consumes nearly 40% of our Gross Domestic Product. I don't believe the 40/40 link is imaginary? [sic]”

In a September 22, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “While addressing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week, Obama began to recite key passages of the Declaration of Independence and slipped up. Or did he? He enumerated the ‘certain inalienable rights’ part beautifully. He even listed the right to life. (Hmmm. How does that comport with an Obamacare law that if
unrepealed would subsidize abortion and thus deny the right to life to millions yet unborn? Well, Barack Obama is hardly the only liberal who manages to declare such pesky questions ‘above my pay grade.’) The trouble came when Obama omitted who endowed the people with these inalienable rights, ‘their Creator’ … We are left to conclude that for the liberal left, our rights do not come from God. They come, instead, from government pronouncements, from UN documents, or from the courts. This is a most disturbing conclusion.”

In an op-ed for the Patriot Post entitled “Obama’s Mosque at Ground Zero” published on August 20, 2010, Blackwell wrote, “Only their [Muslim] beliefs are respected by President Obama … To allow a mosque within spitting distance of Ground Zero is to allow a triumphal arch for our jihadist enemies. It will be a recruiting poster for jihadists worldwide…Do we want sharia law here? That’s the law they have in Saudi Arabia. [Community center proponent] Imam Rauf is all out for sharia. If he succeeds in his life quest, Americans will lose every liberty—starting with our religious liberty.” Rauf actually has said the following about the center: “There's going to be a dedicated prayer space for Muslim, which we do need. And we want to have prayer space for Christians and for Jews. As I said, we have to build on our common platform.” Additionally, Rauf indicated the project will disclose all donors and reject any money offered by organizations that advocate violence.

Commenting on the abortion and LGBT rights debate in America in a July 7, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell complained, “Let Chastity Bono, the daughter of Sonny and Cher Bono, go through surgery and hormone treatments and is there a liberal publication on the planet that will not call this person Chaz and refer to this person as a man?”

In an April 27, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “When Mr. Obama bowed low before Emperor Akihito, it was a tacit apology for [the use of nuclear weapons against Japan during World War II].”

In a March 24, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell called President Barack Obama, “The Abortion President.”

In a March 9, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell suggested that remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could
incite a second Falklands War. Blackwell was incensed that Secretary Clinton referred to the Falkland Islands by their Spanish name. “But
now, we face another possible crisis over the Falklands. And all because of Hillary Clinton’s clumsy attempt at “even-handedness”—which is in fact ham-handedness,” wrote Blackwell. “Think we’re having trouble with Latin Americans now? Try to imagine U.S. Naval vessels called in at the last minute to block an Argentine invasion of the Falklands.”

In a February 23, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell claimed that homosexuals “created” the AIDs epidemic and worried “Do the American people want to bring this health crisis into the ranks of our volunteer military?” Regarding the potential repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, Blackwell wondered, “What would the gay quota be? Would it be the widely discredited 10% figure that gay activists like Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings always cite? Or would it be the more realistic ‘less than 3% figure?’”

In a January 19, 2024 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell suggested that TWA Flight 800, which crashed in 1996 killing all 230 persons aboard, was downed by a terrorist attack. A FBI investigation revealed no evidence of terrorist involvement.

In 2010, Blackwell, along with Family Research Council colleague Ken Klukowski, published “The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency.” According to the authors, President Obama’s goal is to “transform the United States of America into a militant, secular welfare state dominated by an overbearing central government” by using tactics “such as changing voting laws, politicizing the census, coercing corporations into adopting its policies, planning to destroy talk radio, and seeking to make millions of illegal aliens into voting citizens.” They also claimed that Obama “shut down media outlets that expose the truth, and co-opt[ed] the rest of the media to parrot his daily messages.” On the subject of race, the book had this to say: “For affirmative action, the victims are blacks or Hispanics. (We can’t say all minorities, because the tremendous overall success of Asians and Indians proves that there’s no systemic racism that keeps all minorities down.)…Whoever you are and whatever you do, if you are not a wealthy white male with a great education and a great career, a stable family, and in fine health, then Barack Obama says you are a victim of something and will tell you who to blame.”

After the District of Columbia legalized same-sex marriage, Blackwell wrote a December 21, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post suggesting that the new law would allow polygamy and incest. “Remember, we’ve all been schooled in that LGBT formulation. That means Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered. The advocates of counterfeiting marriage cannot leave out their B and T. So, what will that mean? How can they deny ‘marriage equality’ to a bisexual person who wants to marry two significant others? Or what about a person who has attempted through surgery and drugs to change his sex? Should such a person, if married, be denied the right to marry another person? If love and commitment make a marriage, why cannot brothers and sisters marry? Or fathers and daughters? What the District Council has done is to open the door to polygamy, to incest.”

In a December 16, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell worried that the recent Copenhagen climate change summit was a step towards the “implementation of Chinese-style population control” around the world. “China has for more than thirty years been engaged in a ruthless campaign of forced abortions. Beijing’s one-child policy, were it to be enforced world wide, would lead not only to totalitarianism and massive human rights violations, it would lead to infanticide, as well … Could Americans ever be forced under such an inhuman regime? Is this what Global Warming alarmism leads to? … There is one thing we could do that would make a small contribution to lowering temperatures: We could bury, not burn, the bodies of unborn children who have been aborted under Mr. Obama’s health care takeover. Currently, the practice is to incinerate the hundreds of thousands of bodies cruelly of those denied the right to life,” wrote Blackwell.

In a December 4, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “In turn, [former Kansas Governor] Sebelius vetoed bills that might have put a crimp in [George] Tiller’s sales. While we denounce Tiller’s murder and his murderer, it’s interesting that liberals have not really been able to make Tiller a martyr. He didn’t donate those abortions.”

In a November 20, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell claimed “more than 90 percent” of Democrats “never go to church.”

In a October 30, 2023 opinion piece, Blackwell attacked the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin, by writing, “Would you rather not have a receptionist or customer service representative of your company who has tattooed his or her face with fierce Maori markings? You could be forced by the EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] to make that hire.” Blackwell also worried about the EEOC’s effect on “employers who would prefer not to hire or promote employees who dress as members of the opposite sex.

Expressing his belief that homosexuality is a choice at the 2009 Republican National Convention, Blackwell said, “I've never had to make the choice because I've never had the urge to be other than a heterosexual, but if in fact I had the urge to be something else, I could have in fact suppressed that urge.” Blackwell further stated that the only two sexual orientations are “male” and “female.”

During the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial election, Blackwell was accused by his Democratic opponent, Ted Strickland, of using innuendo to imply that Strickland had a homosexual relationship with a former aide. During a debate, Blackwell also made the shocking accusation that Strickland was associated with the pro-pedophile North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). Strickland defeated Blackwell by a large margin.

In 2006, Blackwell said that he favors legislation that would outlaw abortion in the case of rape, incest, and even to save the life of the mother.

In 2006, Blackwell co-wrote a book with Jerome Corsi, who is well known for his role in the “Swift Boat” campaign against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and the “Birther” accusations against President Barack Obama. Blackwell and Corsi’s book called for eliminating all federal welfare benefits.

In October 2004, prior to the presidential elections, Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell sent a letter to conservatives to encourage them to vote on a gay marriage ballot issue. Democrats contended that it was inappropriate for the person in charge of overseeing the election to rally voters to vote a specific cause. Marion County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Slagle compared Blackwell’s conduct to “allowing the manager of the New York Yankees to also serve as the chief umpire in the World Series.”

Blackwell received the John M. Ashbrook Award at the CPAC convention in 2004. The award is named after one of the founders of the ACU who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 21 years as a Republican from Ohio.