Ex-KKK leader tries Senate run
BATON ROUGE, La. — A quarter century after his credible run for governor of Louisiana rattled the national political establishment, white supremacist David Duke has joined 23 other candidates seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate.
On Friday, he declared “the climate of this country has moved in my direction,” as he registered to run as a Republican for the Senate seat being vacated by David Vitter.
Duke once served in the Louisiana Legislature, but he hasn’t held elected office since 1994. The former Ku Klux Klan leader fell into relative obscurity after losing a 1991 runoff for governor.
Duke spent a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to bilking supporters and cheating on taxes — although he declared he’d done nothing wrong.
Duke, 66, was associated with neo-Nazi groups as a student at LSU. He was grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s and headed a “white unity group” — the National Association for the Advancement of White People — in the 1980s.
He is registered with the GOP, but Republicans at the state and federal level quickly denounced his Senate bid.
