North Dakota school board candidate has shockingly strong ties to the Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist with deep ties to the Ku Klux Klan and its former leader David Duke is running for a school board seat in North Dakota.

James "Jamie" Kelso filed paperwork Friday with Grand Forks Public Schools to run for one of the five school board seats up for election in June, reported the Grand Forks Herald.

The 69-year-old Kelso heads the white nationalist American Freedom Party, and he also has ties to the neo-Nazi group National Alliance and worked two years as Duke's personal assistant.

Kelso, who has a seventh-grader and kindergartner in the school district, also worked to expand the online hate forum Stormfront and founded the white nationalist website White News Now.

“I’m very interested in the school district,” Kelso told the newspaper.

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Kelso as "an extremely hyper organizer and serial joiner of religious sects," but he denies the anti-hate organization's description.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center has opinions on me,” Kelso said. “They are a left-wing organization, and I’m a right-wing person.”

Kelso complained the current school board is "fairly liberal," and promised to request an audit to find out how much money the district spent on refugee students.

“My point of view derives from the fact that I’ve experienced little schools, and I love them,” he said. “I love the personal quality.”

Eight candidates filed for election by last week's deadline, and the top five vote-getters will be elected to at-large seats.