His politics and writings are largely devoted to promoting conspiracy theories about Jews, such as Holocaust denial and Jewish control of academia, the press, and the financial system.

[17][18] In 1964, Duke began his involvement in radical right politics after attending a Citizens' Councils (CCA) meeting and reading Carleton Putnam's pro-segregation books, later citing Race and Reason: A Yankee View as responsible for his "enlightenment".

[23] While a student at LSU, Duke took a road trip to an American Nazi Party conference in Virginia with white supremacists Joseph Paul Franklin (later convicted of multiple acts of racial and antisemitic terrorism and executed for serial murder) and Don Black.

[26] He also claimed to have gone behind enemy lines 20 times at night to drop rice to anti-communist insurgents in planes flying 10 feet (3.0 m) off the ground, narrowly avoiding a shrapnel wound.

Several racial confrontations broke out that month in the city, including one at the Robert E. Lee Monument involving Duke, Addison Roswell Thompson—a perennial segregationist candidate for governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans—and his 89-year-old friend and mentor, Rene LaCoste.

He also reformed the organization, promoting nonviolence and legality;[independent source needed] also, for the first time in the Klan's history, women were accepted as equal members and Catholics were encouraged to apply for membership.

Despite being six years too young to be president, Duke attempted to place his name on the ballot in 12 states, saying he wanted to be a power broker who could "select issues and form a platform representing the majority of this country" at the Democratic National Convention.

[35][36] In 1979, he pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace when he led 70 to 100 Klansmen to surround police vehicles in a Metairie hotel parking lot in September 1976, and was fined $100 and given a three-month suspended sentence.

[54] Freshman legislator Odon Bacqué of Lafayette, a No Party member of the House, stood alone in 1989 when he attempted to deny seating to Duke on the grounds that the incoming representative had resided outside his district at the time of his election.

Colleague Ron Gomez of Lafayette stated that Duke, as a short-term legislator, was "so single minded, he never really became involved in the nuts and bolts of House rules and parliamentary procedure.

[57][58][59] Gomez, in his 2000 autobiography, said that he recalls Duke obtaining the passage of only a single bill, legislation which prohibited movie producers or book publishers from compensating jurors for accounts of their court experiences.

[7] During the campaign, he said he was the spokesman for the "white majority"[70] and, according to The New York Times, "equated the extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany with affirmative action programs in the United States".

[8] The Christian Coalition of America, which exerted considerable impact on the Republican State Central Committee, was led in Louisiana by its national director and vice president, Billy McCormack, then the pastor of University Worship Center in Shreveport.

[8] White House chief of staff John H. Sununu said, "The president is absolutely opposed to the kind of racist statements that have come out of David Duke now and in the past.

For a time, Duke took Rickey to lunch, introduced her to his daughters, telephoned her late at night, and tried to convince her of his beliefs, including that the Holocaust was a myth, Auschwitz physician Josef Mengele was a medical genius, and that blacks and Jews were responsible for various social ills.

Jason Berry of the Los Angeles Times called it "startling TV" and the "catalyst" for the "overwhelming" turnout of black voters who helped Edwards defeat Duke.

[86] The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said that the NOP's "high tone" contrasts with statements at the event where the pact was signed, such as Paul Fromm's calling a Muslim woman "a hag in a bag" and Sam Dickson (from the Council of Conservative Citizens, another sponsor) speaking about the "very, very destructive" effect of opposing the Nazis in World War II—opposition that caused people to view Hitler's "normal, healthy racial values" as evil.

[86] The SPLC called the NOP a "smokescreen", saying that "most of the conference participants' ire was directed at what they consider to be a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to destroy the white race through immigration and miscegenation".

[104] Duke urged Trump to replace his vice president, Mike Pence, with talk show host Tucker Carlson, asserting that such a ticket was the only way to "stop the commie Bolsheviks".

[108][109] A Mason-Dixon poll released on October 20, 2016, showed Duke receiving support from 5.1% of voters in the state, barely clearing the 5% requirement for a candidate to be allowed to participate in a November 2 debate.

"[9][independent source needed] A book review by Abraham Foxman, then the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), describes My Awakening as containing racist, antisemitic, sexist, and homophobic opinions.

The ADL office initiated a letter from Alexander Fedulov, a prominent member of the Duma, to Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, urging a criminal case be opened against the author and the Russian publisher of Duke's book.

...The task before us is to wrest control of America's foreign policy and critical junctures of media from the Jewish extremist Neocons that seek to lead us into what they expectantly call World War IV.

[148] The ADL has said that MAUP is the main source of antisemitic activity and publishing in Ukraine,[149] and its "anti-Semitic actions" were condemned by Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk and various organizations.

[154] On June 3, 2005, he co-chaired a conference named "Zionism As the Biggest Threat to Modern Civilization" sponsored by MAUP and attended by several Ukrainian public figures and politicians and Israel Shamir, described by the ADL as an anti-Semitic writer.

Prosecutors also stipulated that in contrast to what he wrote in the mailings, he sold his home at a hefty profit, had multiple investment accounts, and spent much of his money gambling at casinos.

[187] To raise money in 1976, Duke (using the double pseudonym James Konrad and Dorothy Vanderbilt) wrote a self-help book for women, Finders-Keepers: Finding and Keeping the Man You Want.

[189] Tulane University history professor Lawrence N. Powell, who read a rare copy of the book given to him by journalist Patsy Sims, wrote that it includes advice on vaginal exercises and oral and anal sex and advocates adultery.

[193] In the 1970s, under the pseudonym Mohammed X, Duke wrote African Atto, a martial arts guide for black militants; he claimed it was a means of developing a mailing list to keep watch over such activists.

There, she became involved with Duke's Klan friend Don Black, whom she later married, and they began a small bulletin board system (BBS) called Stormfront, which has become a prominent online forum for white nationalism, Neo-Nazism, hate speech, racism, and antisemitism in the early 21st century.