His candidacy is the culmination of a steady political climb for a deeply conservative Republican who once described himself, according to a local columnist, as “like David Duke without the baggage.”
In Louisiana, Mr. Scalise represents the First Congressional District, a place where the fossil fuel industry is king, and where conservatism is rooted in the myth of rugged individualism — and, at least in some quarters, a politics of racial resentment. It is where Mr. Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, was elected to the State Legislature in 1989.
Mr. Scalise has suggested that his life and political career have been influenced by those forces. He made the remark comparing himself to Mr. Duke to Stephanie Grace, now a columnist for The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate newspaper, when she first met Mr. Scalise in the 1990s. She wrote that Mr. Scalise’s point “was that the actual governmental philosophy Duke espoused isn’t far off from what was becoming mainstream conservative thought, what with its suspicion of taxes, set-asides and safety net programs such as welfare.”
(Over the weekend, Ms. Grace endorsed Mr. Scalise for speaker.)
Decades later, those views are as powerful as ever in the Republican Party as Mr. Scalise faces off for the speakership against Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a founder of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus.
Mr. Scalise is making the run despite having been diagnosed only weeks ago with blood cancer, for which he has been undergoing treatment. His supporters insist it has not diminished his capacity for the job.
