NEW ORLEANS—It was strange enough to see former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, his surgically-altered face fixed in a grin, standing on a stage at historically black Dillard University on Wednesday night. But the evening would only get stranger—and uglier—as Duke and five other candidates took part in a statewide televised debate in the race to replace retiring U.S. Senator David Vitter. State Treasurer John Kennedy, a Republican who has narrowly led the field, called Duke "a convicted liar and a convicted felon" who was caught not paying his taxes. "It must be terrible to wake up with that much hate in your heart," Kennedy said to Duke. Another candidate, Democratic attorney Caroline Fayard, standing next to Duke, called him a "snake."

Moderator John Snell, a veteran TV anchor in New Orleans, tried valiantly to prevent the debate from becoming, as he said, "a referendum on one candidate." But that's what happened. Duke loudly characterized the other five candidates as part of a "corrupt" political establishment and repeatedly became the center of attention. He interrupted the hour-long debate to shout down Snell, saying he wasn't being allowed to answer a question. Adding to the drama: Police twice used pepper spray against 50 to 75 people who were trying to force their way into the building while protesting Duke's presence at Dillard.

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Afterward, a bizarre scene unfolded in the media room. While the other candidates talked to reporters, Duke entered and began shouting to get everyone's attention, saying Snell's attempt to silence him was "an example of the rigged system that Donald Trump talks about." Reporters and cameramen left the other candidates to surround Duke, who has surged back to national attention after years in the political wilderness because of Trump's fitful (and not always persuasive) efforts to disavow him. Duke let loose a screed, complaining about "the media hacks" who organized the debate and saying he hadn't had the chance to make the point that "we have a few rich international globalist banker oligarchs who control 90 percent of the campaign money in this country."

As Duke's biographer, I had heard all this before. (For Duke, the media and international banks are code words for Jews.) In the 1990s, working as a reporter for The Times-Picayune, I covered his extraordinary rise as a charismatic, wunderkind white supremacist who won 55 percent of the white vote in Senate and gubernatorial races, and I watched his fall as felon and failure. Now Duke was trying to make a comeback by attempting to grab on to Trump's coattails. I was on deadline Wednesday night, trying to finish my debate article for The Baton Rouge/New Orleans Advocate, but I stopped and looked at him, standing a few feet in front of me. Back in 1990, I had first reported that Duke had undergone cosmetic surgery. (The story prompted the most memorable campaign sign I've ever seen: "Nose Job Nazi.") Duke had undoubtedly had more work done in recent years because his face looked almost disfigured, puffy and misshapen.

The thought now came to me: This is his last hurrah. The rise and fall of David Duke is complete. And how ironic, considering that so much of his anti-globalist and pro-white rights message is at last resonating.

Duke stands virtually no shot of finishing first or second on Tuesday in what is the jungle primary in the Senate election to determine who qualifies for the runoff election on Dec. 10. Long gone are the rapturous crowds that greeted Duke when he campaigned to be governor of Louisiana 25 years ago and created a race-based mass movement by tapping into the frustration of white voters. Gone, too, are the campaign donations that fueled Duke's compelling TV ads back then—with a message that presaged Trump by promising to deep-six an economic and political system that he said was stacked against the middle class.

Duke has scarcely registered in polls despite his efforts at campaigning, including at Oktoberfest, on game day outside the football stadium at Louisiana State University, his alma mater, and at a small local fair. Duke's campaign manager even quit, saying that Duke had resisted entreaties to moderate his message.

Duke had twin goals in running for Senate, I believe. One was to make the runoff and possibly win the race. The other was to reestablish himself as a leader among the white identity movement, now called the alternative-right, which has gotten its own bounce from Trump this year. But alt-right leader Jared Taylor said the media will never allow the public to forget Duke's Klan past. "If you've ever worn a pointy hood, that is a permanent part of your ideological background," said Taylor. "You can't separate yourself from that." A 66-year-old grandfather of three, Duke will be able to take