Mamdani Used to Live in the GOP

By Joseph Catena

Once upon a time, a long time ago, Zohran the anti-Semite used to live in a kingdom called Republicanville. He was a wizard, but had no magical powers or wisdom. After a short residency, he faded away, never to be seen again.

In reality, the Republican party once faced a major Mamdani problem brewing within. Unlike today’s Democrats, they did something about it.

In 1989, David Duke, a former Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, burst onto the political scene in Louisiana. Duke, once a registered Democrat, won a special election that year in the Louisiana State House of Representatives, and immediately set his sights on higher office. His views had racist undertones, even though he had separated himself from the Klan, and he was fervently anti-Israel, often questioning the severity of the Holocaust and denouncing what he called “Jewish supremacy.” One year later, he sought the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat J. Bennett Johnston, who was viewed as vulnerable because of his liberal voting record. Louisiana’s jungle primary format allows all members of both political parties to compete. If no one achieves 50 percent, then the top two candidates face off in a general election, regardless of party.

This posed a huge potential problem for Democrats, and it played right into the former grand wizard’s hands. Duke was the only Republican in the race and was pitted against Johnston plus two other Democrats, Nick Joseph Accardo and Larry Crowe. Accardo and Crowe wound up being inconsequential, and the GOP abandoned Duke and conceded the primary to the sitting senator, who garnered 53 percent of the vote. Republicans, including then-President George H.W. Bush, denounced him. In fact, eight Republican senators and HUD Secretary Jack Kemp crossed party lines and endorsed Johnston.

Duke was not dissuaded. He made one more stand in 1991, this time in the governor’s race. Incumbent Buddy Roemer switched from Democrat to Republican in March, which didn’t thrill either party. Like Mamdani, Duke tapped into voter sentiment on populist issues, in his case affirmative action and race-based quotas. And like Mamdani, he was – and still is – opposed to Israel. To that end, Duke trashed President Trump for his staunch support of Israel, and he endorsed Green Party nominee Jill Stein for president in 2024 for being “brave enough to call out Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, the genocide that is going on right now, and the damage it’s doing to the American people.”

Some things never change.

In the jungle primary runoff in October 1991, Duke surpassed Gov. Roemer and came in second to Democrat Edwin Edwards, who had served three other terms as governor, and was constantly embroiled in scandals that included numerous ethics charges. Edwards squeaked by with 33.76 percent of the vote to Duke’s 31.71 percent. Roemer came in a distant third. Again, Republicans repudiated Duke in the general election. Not one consequential endorsement. Not one olive branch extended. Not one congratulatory outreach or phone call for his near-first-place finish. Even Roemer, a bitter rival of Edwards, endorsed the ethically challenged former governor. In a battle of bad guys, the proverbial lesser of two evils won, as Edwards overwhelmed Duke and received 61 percent of the vote.

For any faults the GOP may have espoused in the early ‘90s (i.e. – nominating lousy milquetoast presidential candidates), cozying up to Jew haters was not one of them. Can you imagine Republicans nationwide exclaiming, “You’ve got to give credit to him for running an energetic campaign and tapping into voter concerns,”? Worse yet, can you imagine a Governor Duke becoming the new face of the Republican party? It would have been political suicide. And it certainly would not have been accepted.

Surely, if Zohran Mamdani was a shade or two lighter and was Christian instead of Muslim, Duke would likely Stein him and hail the political neophyte for also being “brave enough to call out Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, the genocide that is going on right now, and the damage it’s doing to the American people.”

Former Alabama Governor and five-time presidential candidate George Corley Wallace, a pro-segregation Democrat for most of his long political life, once quipped, “There ain’t a dime’s worth of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats.”

With all due respect, Governor, based on what the Republicans did back in 1990 and 1991, and what the Democrats aren’t doing in 2025, there’s at least a dollar’s worth.