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Alan Keyes to make third bid for president; becomes second African-American candidate

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Chicago, IL — Republican Alan Keyes is hoping that the third time's the charm in his bid for president in 2008.  He joins a field that includes Democrat Barack Obama, who defeated him in 2004 for the US Senate in Illinois.  Keyes, a former State Department official under President Reagan, also ran for president in 1996 and 2000 and has two unsuccessful runs for Maryland's Senate seats.

Keyes declared his candidacy Friday on his Web site and told syndicated radio host Janet Parshall he's "unmoved" by the lack of moral courage shown by the other candidates, among whom he sees no standout who articulates the "key kernel of truth that must, with courage, be presented to our people."

In 2004 Republicans drafted the ultra-conservative Keyes as a candidate in the Senate race in Illinois after primary winner Jack Ryan dropped out amid a scandal.

During the 2004 Republican National Convention, Keyes said that homosexuality is "selfish hedonism." Following those comments, Republican Party leaders distanced themselves from Keyes and his run for the US Senate.  Keyes received less than 30 percent of the vote losing to Obama.

As part of his 2004 campaign, Keyes attacked Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary Cheney saying "If my daughter were a lesbian, I'd look at her and say, `That is a relationship that is based on selfish hedonism.' I would also tell my daughter that it's a sin, and she needs to pray to the Lord God to help her to deal with that sin." Ironically after his failed bid for US Senate, Keyes' daughter Maya Marcel-Keyes acknowledged that she is a lesbian.

After coming out in 2005 during an Equality Maryland rally in Annapolis, Maryland, Maya told the Washington Post her parents, Keyes and his wife, Jocelyn, threw her out of the family's Chicago apartment, will not pay her college tuition and stopped speaking to her.

Keyes entry into the already crowded Republican field of 9 candidates makes him the second black candidate running for president, placing him opposite Democrat Barack Obama.  Keyes has previously said Obama had to be stopped saying he had taken a "wicked and evil position" on abortion. 

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