On June 8, 1987, Duke, standing beside 30 supporters, announced in Atlanta, Georgia on the steps of the capitol building that he would run for the Democratic nomination for president. Duke had attempted to announce his campaign at two Atlanta hotels, but his reservation at both were cancelled as they stated that his appearance posed a threat to their safety. His candidacy was immediately attacked with Paul G. Kirk, the Democratic National Committee Chairman, stating that Duke's attempt at the party's nomination was "fraud on the process and the public" and that they would attempt to prevent him from gaining primary ballot access. Kirk compared Duke's candidacy to that of Lyndon LaRouche's many attempts at the Democratic nomination and how the Democratic Party had fought against him as well.
Shortly after his announcement Duke appeared on an Atlanta WSGT radio station which caused multiple protests around the station and call-ins meant to disrupt the radio station. A week later he pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of a roadway from when he was involved in an incident during a civil rights march in Forsyth County in January. Duke was excluded from all of the primary debates and he filed an $1 million lawsuit against the Democratic Party for not allowing him to participate at the November 2, 1987, debate at Tulane University stating that his right to freedom of speech was violated, but it was dismissed by a New Orleans federal judge in March 1988. Duke, a white supremacist, hated the black civil rights activistJesse Jackson and his "Rainbow Coalition" and he claimed to command his "Sunshine Coalition" in opposition. Duke lost in his home state of Louisiana to Jesse Jackson where he only received 4% of the vote, but Duke managed to win the 1988 New Hampshire Vice-Presidential primary in a landslide with 10,531 votes for 99.69% of the vote. After failing to gain any traction in the Democratic primaries he dropped out and became the presidential candidate for the Populist Party.
Populist Party
On March 7, 1987, David Duke gave his speech at the Populist Party National Committee in Sewickly, Pennsylvania, in which he said "This was the largest pro-white demonstration I`ve ever seen," in regards to the 3,000 people there and "There are going to be tremendous opportunities to take this country back for the founding majority". On March 13 the Populist Party gave Duke its presidential nomination with Bo Gritz as his vice presidential running mate although he would later withdraw stating that he had been told that Representative James Traficant had been given the presidential nomination. Duke had managed to take the nomination due to the Populist Party's financial and organizational failures at the time which caused him to run unopposed after all of his opponents had already stopped running. On September 27, 1988, he was removed from a Paramus restaurant by its owner after making an unannounced campaign event where he was to debate a Libertarian party member at it after another restaurant cancelled his event after learning about him. In the majority of the states he appeared on the ballot with Floyd Parker, while in other states it was Trenton Stokes and received 47,047 votes, for 0.04 percent of the nationalpopular vote with his best showing being in his home state of Louisiana where he won 1% of the vote.
Popular culture
In the television series Parks and Recreation episode "Practice Date," it is revealed that character Donna Meagle donated to Duke's 1988 campaign after receiving a phone call from the campaign, which told her that Duke planned to lower taxes. The 2018 film BlacKKKlansman stars a fictional David Duke organizing events and makes various references to his presidential run.
