Former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke recently told a conservative media outlet that he agrees with a Democratic congressional nominee on an unlikely issue: interracial marriage.
\nDarializa Avila Chevalier, who recently won the Democratic primary in New York\u2019s 13th Congressional District, attracted controversy on the campaign trail for a deleted 2019 social media post where she attacked \u201cBlack men\u201d and \u201cArab men\u201d for \u201cfetishizing ugly colonizer women.\u201d\u00a0
\nThe sentiment won praise from Duke.
\n\u201cWell, I think that people have the right to preserve their particular heritage,\u201d the former KKK leader told the Washington Free Beacon in a phone interview. \u201cAnd if she\u2019s concerned about preserving her heritage if it\u2019s Somali, or whatever she is, she\u2019s certainly got the right to do that.\u201d\u00a0
\nMAMDANI-BACKED SOCIALIST IN HOT SEAT AGAIN OVER DELETED POSTS PRAISING COMMUNISM, MARXISM: \u2018CRAZYPANTS\u2019<\/p>\n
Chevalier identifies as Afro-Latina. She was also part of a cohort of socialist candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani who swept New York\u2019s June Democratic primary elections.
\nDuke served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1989 to 1992 after years of involvement in extremist politics. He was grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan from 1974 to 1980, a title used by the organization for its national leader.
\nEven before Duke went public with his praise for Chevalier, some political observers were making connections between the two.
\n\u201cChevalier is our David Duke,\u201d one unnamed Democrat told journalist Mark Halperin in June. \u201cShe is poisoning the possibility of a Democratic majority.\u201d \u00a0
\nJAMES CARVILLE SAYS SOCIALIST DEMOCRAT SHOULDN\u2019T BE IN THE PARTY, CALLS HER VIEWS \u2018A BRIDGE TOO FAR\u2019<\/p>\n
Former Republican congressman Peter Meijer said Monday on X that \u201cthe difference is that the modern Democratic Party would never do to Chevalier what the GOP did to David Duke.\u201d
\nDuke infamously ran as a Republican in the 1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election after placing second in the state\u2019s nonpartisan jungle primary. Amid national controversy, the GOP refused to endorse Duke, backing Democrat Edwin Edwards instead.
\nHouse Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, congratulated Chevalier on her primary victory in a Saturday social media post. New York\u2019s 13th Congressional District is heavily Democratic, making it very likely that Chevalier will be elected to the House of Representatives in November.
\nHUNDREDS OF RABBIS DEMAND MAMDANI APOLOGIZE FOR PUTTING \u2018TARGET\u2019 ON AMERICAN JEWS WITH AIPAC \u2018MONSTER\u2019 REMARKS<\/p>\n
Duke has had kind words for a number of Democrats in recent years, citing their shared distaste for Israel.
\n\u201cBy defiance to (Zionist occupied government) Ilhan Omar is NOW the most important Member of the US Congress!\u201d Duke wrote on his website in 2019 after Rep. Ilhan Omar was accused of implying that Jewish lawmakers have a dual loyalty to Israel.
\nDuke has called Jews \u201ca blight\u201d who should \u201cgo into the ashcan of history.\u201d
\nThe one-time KKK leader also praised Mamdani in his interview with the Free Beacon.
\n\u201cI think that the new mayor of New York was a step forward,\u201d Duke said, according to the outlet, though he noted he disagrees with him on immigration policy. \u201cHis views on Israel are critical, because there\u2019s no more important political issue than the fact that a tiny minority of America \u2026 the oligarchs of the Jewish people, that they are controlling our foreign policy.\u201d
\nThe episode highlights a potential political vulnerability for some progressive Democrats, who face mounting scrutiny over allegations of antisemitism within their ranks. Duke\u2019s praise for Chevalier \u2014 and his support for other Democrats who have drawn accusations of antisemitism \u2014 give critics in both parties a new opening to attack the Democratic Party\u2019s young and ascendant socialist wing.
\nThe Chevalier campaign did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"