Legendary conservative opinion leader, activist, and author David Horowitz passed away, his foundation has announced.
Horowitz died Tuesday at age 86 following a battle with cancer, Breitbart reported.
The news was shared to his official X account along with a video of personal and career highlights.
In the video caption, his account noted the correct date and that Horowitz died from cancer, though he didn’t publicize what type.
“On behalf of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, we are very saddened to announce the passing of the Center’s founder, David Horowitz,” the account captioned the video.
“After a lengthy battle with cancer, David passed yesterday at the age of 86.
“David Horowitz, 1939-2025,” the post added.
“Requiescat in pace.”
On behalf of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, we are very saddened to announce the passing of the Center’s founder, David Horowitz. After a lengthy battle with cancer, David passed yesterday at the age of 86.
David Horowitz, 1939-2025. Requiescat in pace. pic.twitter.com/F47yooJL3K
— David Horowitz (@horowitz39) April 29, 2025
The early life of Horowitz was surprising for a man who would go on to shape the conservative movement.
He began his life in Forest Hills, New York, as the son of schoolteachers.
As he revealed in his book “Radical Son,” Horowitz’s parents also happened to be members of the Communist Party USA.
They believed they were “secret agents” of the movement who would bring the ideology to their fellow Americans.
“Underneath the ordinary surfaces of their lives, my parents and their friends thought of themselves as secret agents,” Horowitz wrote.
“Even if we never encountered a Soviet agent or engaged in a single illegal act, each of us knew that our commitment to socialism implied the obligation to commit treason, too.”
As a young man in the 1960s, Horowitz was a radical in his own right.
He was a leader of the New Left, which included far-left activist groups like the Black Panther Party.
Horowitz would go on to write for Ramparts magazine, which advanced the cause of radical leftists.
In the 1970s, Horowitz officially became part of the Black Panther Party.
However, that all changed with the murder of his friend Betty Van Patter.
Horowitz believed they were responsible for killing her after she was found dead on a California beach.
She died shortly after he introduced her to the movement.
As fate would have it, Horowitz turned his zeal completely to the conservative movement after Patter’s murder.
He voted for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and was a prominent proponent of the emerging conservative movement.
In 1998, he founded the David Horowitz Freedom Center with the mission of restoring the culture and political landscape for the Right.
After the 9/11 attacks, Horowitz warned against the proliferation of radical Islam and its accompanying sin of anti-Semitism.
In 2010, an exchange with a student at the University of California, San Diego demonstrated just how severe the problem had become.
“I’m a Jew,” Horowitz began when speaking to a female Muslim student.
“The head of Hezbollah has said that he hopes we will gather in Israel so he doesn’t have to hunt us down globally.”
“For it or against it?” he asked her directly.
“For it,” the young woman responded, which proved Horowitz’s central thesis about the extent of the problem.
“Thank you for coming and showing everybody what’s here,” Horowitz flatly added.
Horowitz was a prominent figure in the conservative movement.
His legacy will not soon be forgotten, even as the man himself is laid to his eternal rest.
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