Alan Keyes

Alan Keyes has lived a political life defined by unwavering principle and perennial candidacy. A brilliant orator with a doctorate in government from Harvard, he rose quickly in the Reagan administration as a UN ambassador, articulating a conservative vision with theological fervor. His political ambitions, however, were consistently thwarted. He launched multiple campaigns for the U.S. Senate from Maryland and Illinois, each time galvanizing a base with his eloquent, fire-and-brimstone defense of Christian values and opposition to abortion, but failing to win statewide office. His three bids for the Republican presidential nomination were less about winning delegates than about commanding the debate stage to shift the party's dialogue on moral issues. To supporters, he is a prophetic figure holding the line against compromise; to detractors, an inflexible ideologue. Regardless, Keyes has remained a distinct and unignorable fixture on the American right, a politician who measured success not in elections won, but in arguments made.