State Senate candidate education platform: ‘Stop subsidizing Marxist indoctrination of young minds’
The North Hampton businessman vying for the Seacoast-area state Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Nancy Stiles has called for an end to all federal financial aid for students.
Yesterday, Republican Stephen Kenda, who has described himself as “an anti-Establishment business guy,” announced he is a candidate for the open District 24 state Senate seat. He joins former congressional candidate Dan Innis, North Hampton Selectman Jim Maggiore and N.H. GOP vice chair Ray Tweedie in a crowded primary.
Last year, Kenda denounced the federal financial aid program that provides more than $150 billion in federal grants, loans, and work-study funds each year for more than 13 million students, as well as the students who benefit and the educators who train them.
“Stop subsidizing the Marxist indoctrination of young minds and kill off federal funding of student loans” Kendra wrote on Facebook. “We need to choke leftist academics and their overpaid tenure.”
“It’s bad enough we have another trillion-dollar debt bomb hanging over the heads of a generation that’s only been taught how to occupy and protest,” Kenda continued. “Why can’t people see that, every time the Federal government get’s involved, whether mortgages, healthcare or student loans, that the country suffers?”
Kenda left his comments on the Facebook page of Aaron Day, then-chair of the Free State Project and the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, who subsequently deleted the post.
In 2014, Kenda introduced Donald Trump at the inaugural “Freedom Summit” sponsored by Citizens United and Americans for Prosperity, telling the audience that he had been inspired by Trump’s bestselling memoir, The Art of the Deal, and praising Trump as “a great American.”
Kenda subsequently soured on Trump as a presidential candidate. “I’m not convinced Trump is a conservative,” he told a Time reporter. “I like what he’s done in tearing apart the whole politically correct thing. But I don’t trust him on the Second Amendment or abortion… I wouldn’t put my kids’ futures in his hands.”
Nevertheless, Kenda apparently shares Trump’s view that the country is in precipitous decline. “I’m not prepared to accept that we’re doomed” Kendra wrote, ”but it’s getting closer to a time where Jefferson’s quote is applicable: ‘The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.’ “
