Just a week ago, ex-KKK leader David Duke flirted with challenging House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, but Duke’s now set his eyes on a bigger prize. On Friday, the final day of candidate qualifying, Duke announced that he would run for Louisiana’s open Senate seat—and much to the dismay of the GOP, he’s running as a Republican.
Duke was not at all reticent about revealing what kind of campaign he’ll wage. While he insisted in a video kicking off his bid that he “believes in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans,” Duke quickly made clear that, unlike the other candidates, he demands respect for “European-Americans.” In case that wasn’t direct enough, he went on to demand an end to “the massive immigration and ethnic cleansing of the people whose forefathers created America.” Duke has enthusiastically backed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and he took the time to brag that Trump “and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I’ve championed for years.”
For all his notoriety, though, Duke joins the very crowded field seeking the seat left open by Republican David Vitter’s retirement as a decided underdog. In Louisiana, all candidates of all parties run together on one ballot in November; in the likely event that no one takes a majority of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes will advance to a December runoff, regardless of party. Polls, none of which have included Duke to date, have consistently shown GOP state Treasurer John Kennedy easily grabbing the top runoff spot. It’s a much tighter race for the second slot, with four main contenders vying for runner-up status: Republican Reps. John Fleming and Charles Boustany, and Democrats Foster Campbell and Caroline Fayard.
So it’s unclear what kind of role Duke will have in this contest, or whether he has any shot of advancing to the runoff. But one thing is certain: He’s a massive headache for the GOP establishment. Both the NRSC’s executive director and the chair of the Louisiana Republican Party predictably denounced Duke’s candidacy, but Duke thrives on this sort of rejection, and he’s shown an ability in the past to make life very difficult indeed for his party (much, in fact, like Trump himself).
Duke, who’s always been open about his racist beliefs, first emerged as a notable figure in Louisiana politics back in the late 1980s, winning a state House seat in suburban New Orleans in 1989. He became nationally infamous when he ran for governor in 1991, making it to the runoff against Democrat Edwin Edwards, to the horror of Republicans everywhere. Though Edwards, a former governor, was a deeply flawed candidate with a history of corruption, he won in a landslide as Republican voters shunned Duke. (That campaign produced a legendary slogan: “Vote for the crook. It’s important.”)
Since then, though, Duke has struggled to gain political traction. In 1999, he came close to making the runoff for the old version of Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, but until now, that was the last time he tried running for office. And whatever adherents he may have had back in the ‘90s, they seem to have abandoned him in the intervening years: A February 2013 poll from PPP gave Duke an almost comically awful 9-76 unfavorable rating statewide.
But as we’ve seen with the rise of Trump, there are a still lots of very angry white people out there who respond with terrifying eagerness to a nativist, racist message. And while none of the Republicans currently running for Senate has attempted to link himself closely to Trump, Duke has gladly noosed himself to The Donald. If he gets enough attention, there might be a segment of voters out there ready to support him. And in a contest this crowded, a small but loyal group of supporters could send Duke into the runoff.
Fortunately, it’s a lot harder to imagine Duke actually winning such a runoff. If he were to face off against a fellow Republican, the national and state GOP would back Duke’s opponent, as would Democratic voters. However, in the less-likely event that Duke were to somehow find himself in a runoff against a Democrat, the situation would be considerably scarier. Republicans would still disavow him, of course, but Louisiana will vote for Trump over Hillary Clinton in November. Would it then turn around and vote for a Democrat over Duke in December? The world can only pray that the answer is yes.