David Keene

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David A. Keene (b. May 20, 1945) is the current chairman of the American Conservative Union, a position which he has held since 1984. Additionally, he is the managing associate at the Carmen Group Lobbying, a lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C. In December 2007, Keene endorsed Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he served as the National Chairman of Young Americans for Freedom-Keene has been involved in politics since the 1960s when he served as the Special Assistant to former Vice-President Spiro Agnew. He has also served as the Executive Assistant to former Senator James Buckley, Southern Regional Director for former President Ronald Reagan's unsuccessful 1976 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, National Political Director for George H.W. Bush's unsuccessful 1980 presidential campaign, as well as an advisor to Senator Robert Dole's 1988 and 1996 presidential campaigns.

David Keene has been named a John F. Kennedy Fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics and was chosen as a First Amendment Fellow at Vanderbilt University's Freedom Forum. He also serves as a member of the Board of Visitors at Duke University's Public Policy School, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association. In 2007, he co-founded the American Freedom Agenda, described as "a coalition established to restore checks and balances and civil liberties protections under assault by the executive branch."[1] Keene resigned his position with the American Freedom Agenda in 2007.[2] He is also the co-chairman of 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."[3][4]

Keene, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, writes a regular column for The Hill, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C. newspaper for whose online edition he also provides blogs.

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