31 Facts About Ron Unz

Ronald Keeva Unz is an American technology entrepreneur, conservative political activist, writer, and publisher.

Ron Unz unsuccessfully ran for governor as a Republican in the 1994 California gubernatorial election and for US Senator in 2016.

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

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

Ronald Keeva Unz was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 20,1961, to a Ukrainian family of Jewish descent.

Ron Unz's family migrated to America in the 20th century and was raised household in North Hollywood.

Ron Unz's mother was an anti-war activist who raised her son as a single mother.

Ron 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".

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

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

Ron Unz then took graduate courses in physics at the University of Cambridge and began a Ph.

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

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

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

Ron Unz came in second place to Wilson, receiving 707,431 votes.

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

Ron Unz supported ballot initiatives in other states including Arizona Proposition 203 and Colorado Amendment 31.

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

In late 1999, Ron Unz briefly entered the US 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 2012 and 2014, Ron Unz worked on a ballot initiative to raise the California minimum wage from $10 to $12, but his campaign failed.

Ron Unz's proposal was supported by economist James K Galbraith.

In 2016, Ron 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.

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

Ron Unz was endorsed by former US Representative Ron Paul.

Ron Unz contributed opinion articles on topics such as immigration, the minimum wage, and urban crime.

In 2012, Ron Unz published an article in The American Conservative entitled "The Myth of American Meritocracy".

Ron Unz argued Ivy League universities held an unspoken Asian quota limiting spots granted to Asian students similar to earlier Jewish quotas, and that Jewish students are over-represented than merit would suggest, which he claimed was caused by unconscious Jewish bias among administrators.

In November 2013, Ron Unz launched the website The Ron Unz Review for which he serves as editor-in-chief and publisher.

Ron Unz has donated tens of thousands of dollars to VDARE, which he admits is a "quasi-white nationalist" website, but has said "they write interesting things".

Ford's work, a series of antisemitic pamphlets published in the 1920s, appeared to Ron Unz to be "quite plausible and factually-oriented, even sometimes overly cautious in their presentation".

In 2016, Ron Unz self-published The Myth of American Meritocracy and Other Essays, a hardcover collection of most of his writings, including nearly all of his print articles.