WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Right-wing U.S. radio host Larry Elder, a Black lawyer who has denied there is systemic racism in America, has announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
“America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable. We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there,” Elder said in a Twitter post late on Thursday.
Elder emerged as the most serious challenger in California’s 2021 recall election with a message that Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom had botched his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Newsom handily beat back a Republican campaign to oust him from office in the deeply Democratic state.
Elder defines himself as “an American who is Black” rather than African American, telling The Hill in a 2019 interview: “The idea that there’s systemic racism against Black people is a lie.”
He has said his views grew out of his parents’ contention that he could overcome racism with hard work and determination.
Elder calls himself the “Sage from South Central,” referring to a largely African American district of Los Angeles. He left Los Angeles after high school, attended Brown University in Rhode Island and earned a law degree at the University of Michigan.
After practicing law in Cleveland, he returned to Los Angeles in the 1990s and began his career as a radio host, later becoming syndicated nationwide.
He joins a handful of Republicans who have announced their candidacies as they seek to win the White House back from Democrat Joe Biden, who is expected to make a formal announcement on his re-election bid next week.
They include former President Donald Trump, Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, investor Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican serving in the U.S. Senate, has formed an exploratory committee.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Nick Macfie)
