Ron Unz

Ronald Keeva Unz (born September 20, 1961) is an American technology entrepreneur, political activist, writer, publisher, and Holocaust denier.

A former businessman, Unz became a multi-millionaire in Silicon Valley before entering politics.

Ronald Keeva Unz was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 20, 1961, to a Ukrainian-Jewish immigrant, and raised in a Yiddish-speaking household in North Hollywood.

His mother was an anti-war activist who raised her son as a single mother.

Unz has said that his childhood as a fatherless child in a single-parent household which received public assistance, was a source of "embarrassment and discomfort".

He attended North Hollywood High School and, in his senior year won first place in the 1979 Westinghouse Science Talent Search.

He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and ancient history.

He then took graduate courses in physics at the University of Cambridge and began a Ph.D. at Stanford University before abandoning the program.

Unz worked in the banking industry and wrote software for mortgage securities during his studies.

In 1988 he founded the company Wall Street Analytics in New York City, moving it to Palo Alto, California, five years later.

He unsuccessfully ran for governor as a Republican in the 1994 California gubernatorial election and for U.S. Senator in 2016.

He has sponsored multiple ballot propositions promoting structured English immersion education as well as campaign finance reform and minimum wage increases.

Unz made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination in the 1994 California gubernatorial election, challenging incumbent Pete Wilson.

He ran as a conservative alternative to the more moderate Wilson and was endorsed by the conservative California Republican Assembly.

He came in second place to Wilson, receiving 707,431 votes (34.3 percent).

Newspapers referred to Unz's candidacy as a Revenge of the Nerds and often quoted his claim of a 214 IQ.

In 1998, Unz sponsored California Proposition 227, which aimed to change the state's bilingual education to an opt-in structured English-language educational system.

It was approved by the voters despite opposition from language education researchers.

Proposition 227 did not seek to end bilingual education since special exemptions were made for students to remain in an English immersion class if a parent so desires.

However, there were limits (such as age restrictions) for the exemptions, and there were provisions to discipline teachers who refused to teach solely or predominantly in English.

Proposition 227 was approved in 1998, but repealed by Proposition 58 in 2016.

In early 1999, Unz introduced a campaign-finance reform ballot initiative known as the California Voters Bill of Rights (Proposition 25).

Co-sponsored by California Democrat Tony Miller and endorsed by Senator John McCain, the proposal would have required campaign contributions greater than $1,000 to be declared online within 24 hours, limited individual contributions to $5,000, banned corporate contributions to candidates, and permitted statewide candidates to raise funds only within the 12 months before an election.

In late 1999 Unz briefly entered the U.S. Senate race to challenge incumbent Dianne Feinstein, declaring his candidacy in October and dropping out by December to focus on fundraising for Proposition 25, which was ultimately defeated in the March 2000 primary election.

In 2002, Unz backed a similar initiative, the Massachusetts English Language Education in Public Schools Initiative, which was approved by 61.25% of the voters.

He also supported ballot initiatives in other states including Arizona Proposition 203, Colorado Amendment 31, and 2002 Massachusetts Question 2.

In 2006 the company was acquired by the ratings firm Moody's.

He was publisher of The American Conservative from 2007 to 2013, and since 2013 has been publisher and editor of The Unz Review, a website which describes itself as presenting "controversial perspectives largely excluded from the American mainstream media."

The website has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League as hosting racist and antisemitic content, and the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled it a white nationalist publication.

Unz has also drawn criticism for funding VDARE and other publications accused of white supremacism.

In 2012 and 2014, Unz worked on a ballot initiative to raise the Californian minimum wage from $10 to $12, but his campaign failed.

His proposal was supported by economist James K. Galbraith.

In 2016, Unz organized the "Free Harvard, Fair Harvard" campaign, a slate of five candidates campaigning for spots on the Harvard Board of Overseers, the governing board of Harvard University.

The slate included himself, journalist Stuart Taylor Jr., physicist Stephen Hsu, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, and lawyer Lee C. Cheng.

The campaign sought for tuition fees at Harvard to be abolished and for greater transparency in the admissions process.

None of the five candidates were elected to the 30-person board.

Unz campaigned on a Republican ticket in California in the 2016 primaries for election to the US Senate intending to succeed Democrat Barbara Boxer.

Having previously supported immigration, he now proposed it "should be sharply reduced, probably by 50% or more."

Though not hoping to win the nomination, he put himself forward in an attempt to challenge the then proposed repeal of Proposition 227.

He was endorsed by former U.S. Representative Ron Paul.