David Keene

David Keene at CPAC in February 2011.

David A. Keene (born May 20, 1945) is the President of the National Rifle Association. From 1984-2011, he was the chairman of the American Conservative Union.

Political biography

Keene has been involved in politics since the 1960s, when he worked in the White House as a political assistant to Vice President Spiro Agnew and in Congress as executive assistant to Senator James L. Buckley. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he served as the National Chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, he went on to serve as the southern regional coordinator for Ronald Reagan's 1976 bid for the Republican presidential nomination and national political director for George H.W. Bush's 1980 presidential campaign. He advised Senator Robert Dole's 1988 and 1996 presidential campaigns, and in 2007 endorsed Mitt Romney for president. Today, he is of counsel at the Carmen Group, a lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C.

Keene has been called "one of the country’s most astute political observers," and "was counted as one of the few men with both the ear of Republican presidents and an ability to influence the grassroots."

Civil libertarian

In 2007, Keene co-founded the American Freedom Agenda, "a coalition established to restore checks and balances and civil liberties protections under assault by the executive branch." (In 2007, Keene resigned from AFA.) He also co-chairs the Constitution Project's Liberty and Security Committee, and has said that "the right to appeal one's detention to an independent judge is a cornerstone of responsible, conservative governance." He has been critical of the Patriot Act.

External links

• Last column for the Hill newspaper
• Bio at the Carmen Group
• Bio at the American Conservative Union