Alan Lee Keyes (born August 7, 1950) is an American politician, political scientist, and perennial candidate who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987.

A doctoral graduate of Harvard University, Keyes began his diplomatic career in the U.S. Foreign Service in 1979 at the United States consulate in Mumbai, India, and later in the American embassy in Zimbabwe.

Keyes was appointed Ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations by President Ronald Reagan and later as President Reagan's Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, a position he held from November 13, 1985, until November 17, 1987; in his capacities as a U.N ambassador, Keyes was involved in the implementation of the Mexico City Policy.

Aside from his presidential runs, he was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Maryland against Paul Sarbanes in 1988 and Barbara Mikulski in 1992, as well as in Illinois against Barack Obama in 2004.

[4] Keyes has stated that he received death threats for opposing Vietnam war protesters who seized a campus building.

His stay at the UN provoked some controversy, leading Newsday to say "he has propounded the more unpopular aspects of US policy with all the diplomatic subtlety of the cannon burst in Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

In that capacity, Keyes negotiated the language of the Mexico City Policy to withhold federal funds from international organizations that support abortion.

[24] In 1988, Keyes was drafted by the Maryland Republican Party to run for the United States Senate, and received 38 percent of the vote against victorious incumbent Democrat Paul Sarbanes.

"[full citation needed] Keyes's entry into the Republican race after Buchanan had secured victories in New Hampshire and Louisiana led many to believe that Keyes was a stalking horse for neoconservative elements in the Republican Party, since Buchanan was well known as ardent foe of abortion and had suffered political fallout for bringing abortion and "cultural war" to the center of public policy debates.

[35] He was also noted for jumping into a mosh pit during a Rage Against the Machine song during the Iowa caucus as part of a segment on Michael Moore's TV series The Awful Truth.

[36] On August 8, 2004—with 86 days to go before the general election—the Illinois Republican Party drafted Alan Keyes to run against Democratic state senator Barack Obama for the U.S. Senate, after the Republican nominee, Jack Ryan, withdrew due to a sex scandal, and other potential draftees (most notably former Illinois governor Jim Edgar and former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka) declined to run.

[40] Keyes, who opposes abortion in all cases "except as an inadvertent result of efforts to save the mother's life",[41] said in a September 7, 2004 news conference that Jesus Christ would not vote for Obama[42][43] because of votes that Obama—then a member of the Illinois Senate Judiciary committee and a lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School—cast in 2001 against a package of three anti-abortion bills that Obama argued were too broad and unconstitutional.

"I'm supposed to make a call that represents the congratulations toward the triumph of that which I believe ultimately stands for ... a culture evil enough to destroy the very soul and heart of my country?

In an interview with Michelangelo Signorile, a gay radio host, Keyes defined homosexuality as centering in the pursuit of pleasure, literally "selfish hedonism".

In a straw poll of the attending audience, Keyes placed third among the invited candidates, after Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.

Keyes's campaign called the exclusion "arbitrary, unfair, and presumptuous," arguing that CNN was playing the role of "gatekeeper" for the presidential election.

[63] On December 12, 2007, Keyes participated in the Des Moines Register's Republican presidential debate, televised nationwide by PBS and the cable news networks.

[64][65] Although Keyes was not listed on the latest national CNN poll leading up to the debate,[66] he registered with at least 1 percent of the Iowa vote in order to participate.

[67] During the debate, after the moderator began to ask a question of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, Keyes insisted he was not getting fair treatment.

[68] Toward the end of the debate, Keyes stated he could not support Giuliani if he were to win the nomination due to the former New York mayor's position on abortion.

[79] Following Texas, the Keyes campaign moved to seeking the Constitution Party presidential nomination,[80] but he continued to appear on several Republican ballots.

On May 6, Keyes scored his best showing of the campaign by winning 2.7% for fourth place in North Carolina, earning him two delegates to the Republican National Convention.

[89] Later, Keyes told a group of his supporters that he was "prayerfully considering" making a continued bid for the presidency as an independent candidate,[90] and asserted his refusal to endorse Baldwin's candidacy.

In 1997, he was quoted as calling in that capacity the ABC television show Nothing Sacred "propaganda dressed up as entertainment, the way the Nazis used to make movies.

"[98] In 2002, he hosted a live television commentary show, Alan Keyes Is Making Sense, on the MSNBC cable news channel.

The show also featured critical discussion of homosexuality and of priests accused in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals.

Keyes subsequently wrote an essay directed openly at Governor Bush titled "Judicial review and executive responsibility",[105] days after Schiavo's feeding tube had been removed.

He criticized many conservative Christians for supporting "a candidate whose life could be used to illustrate the deceitfully seductive quality of sin summarized in the phrase 'the glamour of evil.

[122] One of the products featured by Keyes, made by a company called Genesis II, had its sales blocked in April 2020 by a federal court order.

[127][128] Marcel-Keyes also stated that her family had taken these steps after she attended a demonstration against President George W. Bush and asserted that her father "cut her off" because she is a "'liberal queer'".