[2] Kesler was born and raised in West Virginia, where he served as a reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail, then the state's largest newspaper.
[3] He graduated from Harvard University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in social studies (1978), followed by a Ph.D in government (1985).
Additionally, he is the editor of the Claremont Review of Books, a quarterly conservative magazine.
[4] In 2023, he was appointed by Ron DeSantis to the New College of Florida Board of Trustees.
[2] Kesler was a member of the Trump administration's 18-member 1776 Commission, which released a report on 18 January 2021 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) that called for "patriotic education.