Richard Robb

Richard "Richie" Robb is a politician in West Virginia who gained notoriety during the 2004 United States Presidential Election.

Robb has been mayor of South Charleston, West Virginia since 1976, making him the state's longest serving mayor. He first ventured into statewide politics in the unpaid chairman of the state Republican Party for a brief period in the early 1990s.

In 2004 he entered a six candidate primary for the Republican nomination for Governor of West Virginia, finishing fifth. This was only the first seriously contended Republican primary for a major office since 1988 and one of only four since 1930, when that party lost control of the state. In an effort to unify the party, the winning candidate had the state convention appoint the five losers as the state's five Electors in the Electoral College, rather than the traditional slate of party loyalists.

Robb then appeared on the Cable News Network and announced that he was a "free agent" and opposed the policies of George W. Bush. He announced that he would not cast the "deciding vote" for him. In the end, the electoral results were not close and Robb chose not to be a "faithless Elector".

He then changed his registration to Democrat and declared his opposition to the war in Iraq. He ran for the nomination for the United States Congress in the state's Second District on a "peace platform" and finished third.