Former KKK Leader David Duke Qualifies for Senate Debate at Historically Black College

Former KKK leader David Duke has qualified for a Senate debate that will take place at Dillard University, a historically black college in Louisiana.

Image via Getty/Wally McNamee
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Image via Getty/Wally McNamee

David Duke, a proud supporter of Donald Trump and former KKK leader, announced his candidacy for the United States Senate back in July. The convicted felon, anti-Semite, and Nazi sympathizer's Louisiana campaign isn't going as terribly as you'd hope or expect, either. The white supremacist has gained enough support to qualify for a televised Senate debate at a historically black college.

Granted, Duke almost certainly won't win the Senate election, as he's one of 20 candidates in the race. But while he missed the last televised debate, he recently hit 5.1 percent in the polls, which put him above the requirement of 5 percent, according to PBS. So on November 2, he'll join five other candidates to debate on stage at Dillard University, a historically black college in New Orleans.

To put Duke's 5.1 percent into perspective, he's far behind the front runners in the race. The Republican State Treasurer John Kennedy is at 24.2 percent and Democrat Foster Campbell's at 18.9 percent, according to ABC News.

MSNBC reports that Louisiana doesn't have any primaries, so the candidates all run at the same time. If nobody gets more than 50 percent of the votes, they have a runoff between the top two on December 10.

Duke is a Trump supporter and hopes to ride Trump's wave. In his announcement video, Duke explained: "I'm overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I've championed for years. My slogan remains America first."

Duke has a very long and ugly history of racism. Beginning in the 1970s, Duke founded and led the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Louisiana, naming himself the group's grand wizard. In the decades since, he's stuck to his white supremacist beliefs.

He also has a long and largely unsuccessful career in politics. According to ABC News, he served a single term as a Republican Louisiana state representative. He ran (and lost) in the presidential primaries in 1988 and 1992 and had unsuccessful campaigns for U.S. Senator, U.S. representative, Louisiana governor, and Louisiana state senator.

But there is one thing going for the former KKK leader—he still has more support among black voters than Donald Trump.

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