Press Release: A Lake by Any Other Name Still Needs Cleaning Up

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 1, 2026

Roosevelt: "Call the Lake What You Like. I Will Be Busy Fixing It."

Candidate says the eight Great Lakes states need working ports and clean water, not a name change

Badlands, ND – Theodore Roosevelt, candidate for President of the United States, today called on Washington to set aside the argument over renaming a Great Lake "Lake America" and focus on the infrastructure, water quality and jobs that matter to the roughly 40 million Americans who live along the lakes.

"A name is a coat of paint, and you do not paint a house whose foundation is cracking," Roosevelt said. "Not one American family is better off because a lake has a new name. Not one job was created. Not one gallon of water got cleaner."

Roosevelt dismissed the reaction of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who laughed off the order in remarks widely circulated this week. "What a Canadian provincial official thinks of our maps is not my concern," Roosevelt said. "My concern is Erie, Toledo, Duluth and Buffalo, and every American town on those shores."

The Roosevelt 2028 campaign outlined three Great Lakes priorities under its "Square Deal for the Digital Age" platform:

• Fix the plumbing: complete overdue lock and harbor repairs, including the Soo Locks, which the campaign describes as a national security asset.
• Clean the water: fully fund Great Lakes restoration, attack the agricultural and industrial runoff behind annual algae blooms, and hold polluters accountable.
• Put the shoreline back to work: back American shipbuilding, ports, energy and manufacturing along the lakes with the same energy Washington spends on ceremony.

Roosevelt, who as president protected some 230 million acres of American land and water, said symbolic gestures "matter most when they follow action, not replace it."

Press Contact: Roosevelt 2028 Press Office press@electteddy.com https://electteddy.netlify.app