Former Klan Leader David Duke Announces U.S. Senate Bid
After weeks of rumors, David Duke, the former leader of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, has formally announced his bid for U.S. Senate in his home state of Louisiana on the last day for qualifying for the race.听
鈥淭he fact is that European-Americans need at least one man in the United States Senate, one man in the Congress who will defend their rights and heritage,鈥� Duke said in a video published on YouTube this morning.听
Following his announcement, white nationalist Brad Griffin of Occidental Dissent :听
Duke! Duke! Duke!聽Because, why not? He is absolutely right. We need one man in the Senate who is unapologetically pro-White. We need one man in the Senate who will tell the truth about Jewish power and influence. We need one man in the Senate who has decades of bona fide conservative nationalist credentials and experience.
Duke has a long history of political activism in Louisiana, most notably getting elected to聽the聽Louisiana House of Representatives in 1989. Duke got the attention of the world when, during the 1991 Louisiana governor's contest, he forced a runoff with the Democratic candidate, Edwin Edwards.
Earlier this year, Duke (LA-R), a man who gave a speech to Duke鈥檚 European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) in 2002. After his EURO conference attendance was revealed in late 2014,聽Scalise claimed, improbably as a local politician and former neighbor of Duke鈥檚, that he had no idea what EURO was or its connection to Duke.听
Following the Scalise scandal, Duke dropped out of the limelight, doing the occasional interview and attending Holocaust denial conferences聽until the 2016 election cycle kicked into gear. Duke and the rest of the radical right are staunch supporters of Donald Trump and have used his campaign to push their messages into the mainstream. Throughout the campaign, Duke鈥檚 name has been in the media, most notably in February, when Donald Trump refused to disavow his support during an interview with CNN.
鈥淚鈥檓 overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues I鈥檝e championed for years,鈥� Duke said in his announcement video.听
Duke no doubt senses an opportunity to use this attention聽to go even further than聽the Trump campaign聽which has elevated ethno-nationalist appeals to the forefront of a major American political party.
