The name of the relatively unknown David French, a Lipscomb alum, has exploded across the Twitter universe after Bill Kristol’s Twitter announcement that there will be an “impressive” Independent candidate in the upcoming 2016 presidential election.
Kristol, a political figure, journalist and one of the biggest advocates to stop presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, has been searching for a candidate to run as an Independent to put an end to Trump’s campaign.
French is not Kristol’s first attempt at trying to help mount a conservative in the effort to keep Trump and Hillary Clinton from making it into the Oval Office. Kristol also courted Mitt Romney, but to no avail.
Romney, however, applauded French’s character on Twitter on Tuesday.
“I know David French to be an honorable, intelligent and patriotic person. I look forward to following what he has to say,” Romney tweeted.
Lipscomb’s Provost, Dr. Craig Bledsoe, knows French personally. Bledsoe spoke highly of his friend, praising his character.
“The thing I think people should know about David is that he is a high-quality individual who not only talks the talk but also walks the walk,” Bledsoe said, as he thought about the one thing he thinks the American people should know about French. “He is a person who truly believes his convictions and lives out those convictions. He’s not just somebody who says what he thinks; he actually lives what he thinks.”
French was one of Bledsoe’s first students when he started his career as a political science professor at Lipscomb.
“He was a great student — extraordinarily smart. He was one of those students that faculty like because when he walked into class, he would challenge you as much as you would challenge him — sometimes maybe more.
Although French has not declared he will make a run for the presidency, the Independent candidate Kristol referenced in his tweet is indeed French.
According to CNN, Kristol, who is currently visiting Israel, confirmed to CNN Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel that he believes French has a “strong team and a real chance” of making a bid for the presidency.
However, Bloomberg reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann said French declined comment Tuesday evening on any possible run.
Wednesday morning, though, French tweeted: “All the normal political rules apply. The conventional wisdom has been right. An underdog can’t win. Right?”
There have been mixed responses toward French’s potential run. Much of the response, though, has been focused on who French is. Since French didn’t even have a Wikipedia page as of Tuesday, the public has become fascinated with this mystery man that Kristol believes could upset Trump. On Tuesday, French was trending on Twitter.
According to the website of National Review, where French is a staff writer, he is a “constitutional lawyer, a recipient of the Bronze Star and an author of several books who lives in Columbia, Tenn., with his wife Nancy and three children.”
Also, “French is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom,” according to a story posted in Bloomberg News.
French graduated from Lipscomb in 1991. After graduating from Lipscomb as Valedictorian, French then went to Harvard Law School.
In an article he wrote for the National Review, where he is a staff writer, he mentioned his undergraduate home.
“My conservative undergraduate institution — Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. — was far more open to dissent, including from angry atheist classmates (yes, I had a few), than was Harvard Law School. No one was jeered, shouted down, or threatened at Lipscomb. No one called future employers of atheist or liberal students to try to get job offers canceled. Professors didn’t scream at dissenting students, and activists didn’t plaster photoshopped, pornographic pictures of liberals all over campus walls. At Harvard, all those things happened — to conservative students.”
Bledsoe said he was “shocked” when he heard his friend was considering running, but he is interested to see how it all plays out and whether or not French will decide to run.
“I never thought that he would think about running. In terms of his qualifications to run, though, he is one of the most honest guys I know and a person with a great deal of integrity,” Bledsoe said.
A few years ago, Bledsoe invited French to be a guest speaker in one of the political science classes he taught.
Cory Woodroof, who graduated from Lipscomb in 2014 and was also a previous Lumination Editor-in-Chief, was one of the students in that class.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out,” Woodroof said. “It’s pretty fascinating to think that that’s the guy who spoke in one of my classes one time.”
Woodroof also said he is excited about the possibility of a Lipscomb alum entering the presidential race.
“I think it would be fascinating to follow. It’s been interesting to see how Lipscomb folks are getting a rise recently in terms of notoriety. Kelsea Ballerini was a classmate of mine, and I remember Thomas Rhett was a couple years ahead of me.
“If he [French] gets a lot of traction from those that want the conservative alternative to Trump, it’s definitely going to put him on the map as being a notable Lipscomb alum,” Woodroof said.
Dr. Marc Schwerdt, who is a professor in the political science department at Lipscomb, also knows French and speaks highly of him.
“Whenever he said anything in class, he was very respectful to other people,” said Schwerdt. “He’s a very respectable and respectful person.”
Schwerdt, however, said he does not think French will ultimately decide to enter the race because he believes that it would “guarantee a Clinton victory.” He continued by also saying that if Bernie Sanders entered the race later on as an Independent candidate, that it would do the opposite and provide a much better chance of a Trump victory.
“We are still several months away and a lot can happen in that time period, though,” Schwerdt added.
Schwert also said it’s interesting to see how politics has changed since the Obama administration.
“It definitely shows that you can become a point of conversation overnight. I think social media obviously has a lot to do with that . . . and just the internet in general, too.
“I think it also goes to show that things that used to make all the difference — how long you’ve been in politics or how much money you have behind you — do not make as much of a difference as they used to,” Schwerdt said.
As of Thursday afternoon, French has yet to make a public statement about entering the race.
Photo via Twitter