Presumptive Democratic congresswoman Darializa Avila Chevalier's opposition to interracial relationships has earned her words of approval from a surprising source—David Duke.
The former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard turned Louisiana lawmaker said he agreed with her desire to keep the bloodlines pure.
"Well, I think that people have the right to preserve their particular heritage," Duke told the Washington Free Beacon after being reached by phone. "And if she's concerned about preserving her heritage if it's Somali, or whatever she is, she's certainly got the right to do that."
Chevalier's position on interracial relationships stems from a now-deleted social media post from September 2019 in which she criticized black and Arab men for "fetishizing ugly colonizer women." Chevalier, who describes herself as "Afro-Latina" and has said she operates "within the black queer feminist lens," is not Somali.
Duke and Chevalier have more in common than may meet the eye. Duke's insurgent 1991 Louisiana gubernatorial campaign—where he was effectively the GOP nominee—caused an uproar in the national Republican Party, which ultimately supported the Democrat (the famously corrupt Edwin Edwards, who won). Chevalier's extreme left-wing views, including those on race, are today causing similar ferment and embarrassment among Democrats, but so far, the national party has yet to disavow her.
The political journalist Mark Halperin on Monday quoted an unnamed "Democratic Party stalwart" fretting that, "Chevalier is our David Duke. She is poisoning the possibility of a Democratic majority."
Duke has in the past found common ground with far-left Democrats over their shared hatred of Israel. In 2019, he called Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.)—who, unlike Chevalier, is Somali—"the most important Member of the US Congress" after she accused Jewish lawmakers of dual loyalty to Israel.
Duke has in the past justified his position by arguing "I want to see the continuation of my heritage go on" and that "I think most black and white people in America believe that way."
In his call with the Free Beacon, Duke said he also found much to like in New York City's socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose support of Chevalier was pivotal to her primary victory.
"I think that the new mayor of New York was a step forward," Duke said, even while noting his disagreement with Mamdani over immigration.
"I do believe that there are bigger fish to fry, and I do believe that the immigration policies we talk about were orchestrated by the same elite that has given us these wars.
"His views on Israel are critical, because there's no more important political issue than the fact that a tiny minority of America … the oligarchs of the Jewish people, that they are controlling our foreign policy," Duke added, echoing the antisemitic rhetoric he has espoused over his decades in public life.
In the past, Duke has called Jewish people "a blight" who should "go into the ashcan of history." And much of his public commentary today remains focused on Jewish control of governments and official institutions.
The former Klansman has spent decades in public life, running notable failed campaigns for president and governor of Louisiana. He also ran to represent the state in the Senate and House. In 1989, Duke managed to get himself elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives, serving in the job until January 1992.
In December 2002, Duke pleaded guilty to felony mail fraud and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. In 2006, he spoke at an infamous Holocaust denial conference held in Iran where he asserted that the Nazi use of gas chambers to kill Jews had been a myth, according to Fox News.
In 2005, Duke received a doctorate from the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management in Ukraine.
"I am a historian. I have a legitimate Ph.D. from the largest university in Ukraine," Duke boasted in a recent radio broadcast.
Former GOP congressman and superstore scion Peter Meijer, commenting on the parallels between Duke's 1991 governor's race and Chevalier's New York congressional campaign, noted on Monday night that, "The difference is that the modern Democratic Party would never do to Chevalier what the GOP did to David Duke."