Wizards: David Duke, America's Wildest Election, and the Rise of the Far Right

by Brian Fairbanks

Overview

A corrupt old Democrat.

A surging Republican populist.

The Democrat, hounded by corruption allegations; the Republican, dogged by business failures and ties to white supremacists.

The Republican turned out thousands of screaming supporters for speeches blaming illegal immigrants and crime on the Democrats, and the Democrat plummeted in the polls.

Sound familiar?

The '91 Louisiana Governor's race was supposed to be forgettable. But when former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke shocked the nation by ousting incumbent Republican Governor Buddy Roemer in the primary, the world took notice. Democrat Edwin Edwards, a former three-term governor and two-time corruption defendant, was left alone to face Duke in the general election—and he was going to lose.

Then a little-known state committeewoman stepped in with evidence of Duke's nefarious past. Could her evidence be enough to sway the minds of fired-up voters, or would Louisiana welcome a far-right radical into the highest office in the state?

Journalist Brian Fairbanks explores how the final showdown between Duke and Edwards in November 1991 led to a major shift in our national politics, as well as the rise of the radical right and white supremacist groups, and how history repeated itself in the 2016 presidential election. The story of these political "wizards," almost forgotten by history, remains eerily prescient and disturbingly relevant, and a compulsive page-turner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826505019
Publisher:	Vanderbilt University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2022
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Brian Fairbanks was Gawker's first investigative reporter. Before that, he worked with Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley at the Eisenhower Center in New Orleans. His work has appeared in the Guardian, Business Insider, and the New York Press, among others. He lives in New Orleans.

Read an Excerpt

Into Louisiana’s declining economy and social unrest plunged the youngest-ever Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. With his trademark crisp gray suit, megawatt smile, soft-spoken voice, and the political smarts to focus on campus and youth recruiting, David Duke oversaw a stunning revitalization of the KKK. Born after World War II and having embraced the Third Reich as a teenager, Duke headed a growing anti-government, separate-but-equal and anti-racial-tolerance protest movement; that it positioned itself firmly on the country’s pro-business, anti-communist wing gave the capitalist establishment something to work itself into a froth debating: do we accept a candidate who thinks like us but is politically toxic? Duke made local headlines for blaming the state’s economic ills on welfare “giveaways” and rising crime rates on affirmative action initiatives. He built a personal brand of the Long variety, a demagogical organization through which he could actually sell political propaganda like yard signs, hats, or buttons emblazoned with his last name, contrary to his opponents, who often resorted to begging supporters to take swag gratis. And despite mockery in the press for being a supposed “also-ran yahoo,” Duke eventually tapped into a growing conservative movement that prized “aw shucks” personas and tough-love family values (Ronald Reagan) over substantive debate and progress (Michael Dukakis) or peacenik liberalism (Jimmy Carter). Moreover, Duke had a secret weapon. Unlike Edwin Edwards, a legendary but increasingly unwelcome figure in the political scene in the eighties, Duke’s support base was largely composed of enthusiastic voters. Rabidly enthusiastic voters.

Following the ballot count in his 1991 race, Duke’s message continued to spread to the point that it became clear he had been ahead of his time, not so much a product of it. Terrorist attacks, right-wing rhetoric, and the Klan’s popularity online in the nineties indicated, or led to, a radical realignment of the country’s two political parties. The white nationalist movement, behind the Oklahoma City and Atlanta Olympics bombings, also rose in power. It all pointed back to one campaign, one election, one candidate. While the runoff drew consecutive front-page stories in major newspapers, there is another, even more compelling tale from 1991, one mostly kept out of the panic-stricken op-eds and self-congratulatory postmortems: little-known Republican Beth Rickey, through her relentless pursuit of the truth about Duke, almost single-handedly turned the tide in the 1991 governor’s race, the most controversial and widely watched local election in American history. Her story, never thoroughly investigated or reported in full, is a prime example of the adage “country over party” and a blueprint for antifascist efforts today.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Prologue: October 19, 1991

Part I: The Crook
1. The Squeaker
2. Fast Eddie

Part II: The Wizard
3. Aryan Youth
4. Klansman, Unhooded
5. What Beth Rickey Found
6. Vox Populist

Part III: The Grand Old Partisans
7. The Murder
8. The Dragon
9. "The Race from Hell"
10. The Gamblers
11. The Wizards
12. "The Last Race"

Part IV: The Right
13. The 5,784 Days

Postscript
Cast of Characters
Notes

Editorial Reviews

"All books about politics should be so easy and enjoyable to read."
—Robert Mann, Manship Chair in Journalism, Louisiana State University, and author of Becoming Ronald Reagan: The Rise of a Conservative Icon

From the Publisher