Who is David Duke? Jill Stein denounces endorsement from "white supremacist" while slamming Kamala Harris

Jill Stein, the US Green Party's presidential nominee, recently denounced the endorsement she received from David Duke, dubbing him a "racist troll" and "white supremacist." Duke is a politician, neo-Nazi, Holocaust denier, and former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKKK).

On October 14, 2024, Duke announced on his radio show that he was endorsing Stein for this presidential election, deviating from his earlier endorsement for Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Duke said that Stein's pro-Palestine stance is the reason he is siding with the Green Party candidate this election. He added that he gave careful consideration about "what's good for white people, Europeans" before endorsing her.

On October 15, 2024, Jill Stein took to X to denounce his endorsement, claiming his statement was only meant to draw more attention to himself while smearing her campaign.

"A racist troll has “endorsed” our campaign to draw attention to himself, and certain smear merchants are happy to platform this troll to attack us. Of course I reject any "endorsement" from a white supremacist like David Duke," Stein wrote.

She added she had no problem rejecting David Duke's support, slamming Kamala Harris for "bragging" about her endorsement from Dick Cheney, whom she called a "white supremacist mass murderer."

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David Duke founded the KKKK in 1975

Born in 1950 in Oklahoma, David Duke's first brush with far-right politics came when he was 14. The teenager attended a Citizen Councils of America meeting and started reading more about segregation. He was already a member of the KKK by the time he graduated from school.

In 1968, he attended Louisiana State University, and two years later, he founded the White Youth Alliance. In 1975, he established a Ku Klux Klan splinter group, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKKK), and became the organization's youngest grand wizard two years later. In 1979, he distanced himself from the KKKK, finally leaving the organization in 1980.

According to his biography on the Southern Poverty Law Center website, David Duke's political career began in 1975 when he ran for the Louisianan State Senate. He also ran for the Democratic presidential nomination twice, in 1980 and 1988, and for the Republican presidential nomination in 1992.

His first political victory came when he won a Louisiana State House seat in 1989. The following year, he ran for a US Senate seat as a Republican candidate but lost. David Duke campaigned for several political elections, including Governor of Louisiana, US House, and US Senate, but was seldom successful.

Duke was also embroiled in many legal scandals. In 2002, he pled guilty to filing a false tax return and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. In 2009, he was arrested in the Czech Republic for "denying or approving of the Nazi genocide and other Nazi crimes" and "promotion of movements seeking suppression of human rights." However, the charges were dropped.

In 2013, Italy ousted Duke from the country for allegedly trying to spearhead a neo-Nazi group throughout Europe. David Duke has also authored two books, Jewish Supremacism and My Awakening. In the latter, he accused Jewish people of trying to "de-Christianize America," writing:

"In modern America, Jews lead the effort to de-Christianize America. ... They share little of the heritage of the Old Testament people called the Israelites. … Communism and Zionism were born from the same Jewish soul. ... Jewish power is ubiquitous. ... It is not a [Jewish] conspiracy. It is simply two nations — Jew and Gentile — in a state of ethnic war."

During the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, David Duke endorsed Donald Trump. In 2016, he claimed that not voting for Trump was a "treason to your heritage.”