Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke received enough public support to secure a seat in Louisiana’s televised senate debate – which is to be held at a historically black university.
Duke managed to scrape by the 5 percent minimum to qualify for the debate with 5.1 percent of support from a nationwide Mason-Dixon poll, reports ABC News.
While Duke is still far behind the race’s frontrunners Republican John Kennedy with 24.2 percent and Democrat Foster Campbell with 18.9 percent, Duke’s presence at the November 2 debate in New Orleans’ Dillard University, a historically black liberal arts college, is drawing most of the attention.
READ MORE: Ex-KKK Grand Wizard David Duke wants to be Louisiana’s next senator
On Saturday, Dillard University released a statement following confirmation of Duke’s attendance saying they accept no responsibility for any of the candidates on the ticket and had agreed to host the debate before participants had been chosen.
“We were requested to provide a location for an undetermined number of candidates for a form that would not be open to the public… Dillard rents out its facilities for numbers events each year,” read the statement.
“Dillard University does not endorse the candidacy of any of the candidates who will appear in this debate,” it concluded.
Duke announced his running in July and, as a supporter of presidential nominee Donald Trump, he is running as a Republican who “believes in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans. However, what makes me different is I also demand respect for the rights and heritage of European Americans.”