David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an
American white nationalist,
antisemitic conspiracy theorist,
far-right politician, and former
Grand Wizard of the
Ku Klux Klan. A former one-term
Republican Louisiana State Representative, he was a candidate in the
Democratic presidential primaries in 1988 and the Republican presidential primaries in 1992. Duke unsuccessfully ran for the
Louisiana State Senate,
United States Senate,
United States House of Representatives, and
Governor of Louisiana. Duke is a
felon, having pleaded guilty to defrauding supporters by falsely claiming to have no money and being in danger of losing his home in order to solicit emergency donations; at the time, Duke was financially secure, and used the donations for recreational gambling.
Duke describes himself as a "
racial realist," asserting that "all people have a basic human right to preserve their own heritage." Duke also speaks against what he describes as Jewish control of the
Federal Reserve Bank, the
U.S. federal government and the media. Duke supports the preservation of what he considers to be
Western culture and
traditionalist Christian family values,
Constitutionalism,
abolition of the
Internal Revenue Service, voluntary
racial segregation,
anti-Communism and
white separatism. He has been accused of supporting
Holocaust denial and opposes what he considers to be "promotion of homosexuality" by Jews.