UPDATE: Oakland TPUSA President Cheyenne Kenney daughter of local “hate rock” band leaders and Proud Boy Associates Travis & Liza Kenney running for State Assembly (District 18)

For our previous reporting on Hammerlock, an Oakland-based Rock Against Communism (RAC) band, and their ties to the Proud Boys and American Guard please click the link here.

Cheyenne Kenney, daughter of Liza and Travis Kenney, is running for California State Assembly in the 18th District (Alameda, Emeryville, Oakland) on a platform of “protection of kids, medical freedom, gas power, and safer streets,” with a cringe-worthy campaign slogan of “Don’t bip our future.” This comes as a departure from the family’s previously more explicit associations with fascist groups like the Proud Boys, American Guard, and Atlantic City Skinheads, and can be seen as an attempt by the Kenney family to mainstream their brand of crypto-fascism into the increasingly far-right GOP. It appears that they hope Cheyenne won’t be as burdened by their explicit connections to organized white supremacy. In recent years, both Liza and Travis Kenney have backed Cheyenne’s leadership of the TPUSA Oakland Activism Hub, her involvement in transphobic anti-vaxx group Bay Area Against Mandates, and now her involvement in the Berkeley College Republicans.

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Cheyenne’s campaign is heavily based on capitalizing on the current trans panic. Notable endorsements include TERF-adjacent groups such as Mom Army and Dad Army, as well as Leave Our Kids Alone. Leave Our Kids Alone (LOKA), led by Manuk Grigoryan, has made news following a series of violent rallies targeting Glendale area schools and drag shows, featuring appearances by Proud Boy Adam Kiefer, and close friend of Grigoryan, neo-nazi Narek Palyan throwing several nazi salutes.

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Kenney Family Connections to Organized Fascist Groups

Hammerlock, Travis and Liza Kenney’s band with drummer Mikey Kingshill is a mixture of RAC (“Rock Against Communism”) and Confederate Rock, and is the main vehicle of the Kenney family’s political organizing. Close friends with members of the nativist street fighting group, American Guard, the Kenney’s additionally have friends and supporters in the Proud Boys. At a Berkeley Trump rally heavily attended by Proud Boys (03/4/17), Travis Kenney sucker-punched an anti-racist protestor. Hammerlock was also invited to play at Fall Love Fest (10/16/21), a large Proud Boy rally in LA, but were no-shows despite several attendee’s wearing their RAC branded shirts. Another friend of the band is Joshua Croom Williamson, drummer for nazi band Aggravated Assault, and member of murderous NJ bonehead gang, Atlantic City Skinheads.

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Bay Area Against Mandates and Oakland TPUSA Activism Hub

Since the time of our initial article on Hammerlock, the Kenneys have involved themselves with the White Rose Society telegram group focusing on anti-communist conspiracies, anti-vaxx adovacy and covid denialism. Their family is also involved in Bay Area Against Mandates, a anti-vaxx group headed by Jackie Sarita of San Mateo, that has recently pivoted to anti-LGBTQ Drag Queen Story Time harassment (in Castro Valley and San Lorenzo). Alongside a member of the Bay Area Proud Boys, BAAM member and ex-CHP security consultant Spencer Noel Van Glahn, the Kenney (minus Cheyenne), Mikey Kingshill, and other members of BAAM attempted to force and intimidate their way into disrupting a children’s drag performance in San Lorenzo (06/11/23). Liza Kenney was one of the most aggressive protestors that day and attempted to enter the blocked off performance, and remarked on video that Cheyenne couldn’t be there that day because she was at a TPUSA event.

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Recent fixtures at the state capitol at anti-trans and TERF rallies outside the State Capitol, the Kenney family has attempted to mainstream Cheyenne as a conservative political organizer, mostly through her involvement in Berkeley College Republicans and Turing Point USA, of which she is the Oakland Activism Hub President. TPUSA is a 501(c)3 conservative advocacy group that has recently embraced Christian Nationalism, although the group has a long history of racist scandals (https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/short-history-turning-point-usas-racism). Core to Kenney’s campaign is the concept of “parental rights” an anti-trans legislative concept that advocates detransition and denies children bodily autonomy. Cheyenne has also networked at the State Capitol with Erin Friday of the transphobic hate groups Our Duty and Parents for Ethical Care (PEC)

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A fairly openly friend to fascists, Charlottesville attendees (Unite the Right), and boneheads (white power skinheads), the Kenney’s particular brand of Confederate Rock shares all the political ambitions of original RAC. Due to the stigma of organized hate, the Kenney family are attempting to mainstream a white supremacist and anti-LGBTQ political program into the California State Assembly behind the less notorious face of their home-schooled only child, Cheyenne Kenney. While Cheyenne’s campaign planks are completely out of touch with the average Oakland voter, the Kenney family are able to network through astroturfed GOP 501(c)3’s and far-right conservative student groups like Berkeley College Republicans and TPUSA Oakland. We believe this information is of public interest to residents of Alameda, Emeryville, and Oakland.

Cheyenne Kenney:

Instagram: @cheyenne4assembly, @hammerlock_rocknroll (parents), @tpusa_oakland, @eastoaklandmotorcycles (Hammerlock drummer Mikey Kingshill)

Address: 4100 Martin Luther King Jr Way – Oakland, CA 94609 (Hammerlock House), 1221 28th Street – Emeryville, CA (B.P. Psychos Clubhouse)

Please send any and all tips regard Hammerlock and/or the Cheyenne Kenney for State Assembly campaign to bay161[@]riseup[.] net.