David Duke Makes It to Primetime for Louisiana Senate Debate — at Black College

Image by YouTube
After Wednesday’s debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, it might have seemed that we wouldn’t see the likes of it for a long time. But two weeks from now, Louisiana white supremacist and long-shot Senate candidate David Duke will take the debate stage with five of his rivals.
After the story broke Thursday, Duke posted to Twitter to brag about his success, “Important News! I qualified for the U.S. Senate most important debate in Louisiana on Nov 2. I can’t wait to tell truth nobody else dares!”
In a later Tweet, he complained about a previous debate to which he was not invited, “Five Establishment sellouts questioned by media sellouts. Time to put an end to this disgusting cuckoldry, see you at the next debate #LaSen.”
Duke, an ‘alt-right’ darling and a super fan of the Republican nominee, made the cut thanks to a poll taken this week by a Fox affiliate in the state, which showed him just clearing the bar of 5% support.
In an ironic twist, the event will take place at New Orleans’ Dillard University, a historically black university.
“Dillard is pretty supportive of Black Lives Matter, and I’ve been pretty critical of them,” Duke said, in comments to the Acadiana Advocate.
Louisiana is home to a unique electoral contest known as “the jungle primary,” in which candidates from all parties compete, with the top two vote getters moving to the general election. Duke is running as a Republican.
Currently, the field is led by Republican John Kennedy and Democrat Foster Campbell.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Actor Ben Platt says his Jewish identity is ‘not defined’ by Israel, showing a gap between him and his influential family
-
Fast Forward Shapiro house fire suspect targeted Jewish governor over pro-Israel stances, search warrant says
-
Fast Forward Jewish family killed in New York plane crash
-
Fast Forward Israelis can no longer enter the Maldives after Palestinian-solidarity ban goes into effect
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.