Larry Elder
Laurence Allen Elder is an American libertarian talk radio host, author, attorney, and documentary filmmaker who hosts The Larry Elder Show. The show began as a local program on Los Angeles radio station KABC in 1993 and ran until 2008, followed by a second run on KABC from 2010 to 2014.
The show is nationally syndicated, first through ABC Radio Networks from 2002 to 2007 and Salem Media Group since 2015. Elder has also written nonfiction books and a nationally syndicated column through Creators Syndicate.
An honors student who also took advanced courses at Fairfax High School, Elder graduated from Crenshaw High School in 1970 and earned his B.A. in political science in 1974 from Brown University. He then earned his J.D. from University of Michigan Law School in 1977.
After graduation, Elder joined the Cleveland law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. In 1980, he founded Laurence A. Elder and Associates, a legal executive search firm. Elder stepped down from operating Elder and Associates around 1987 but continued to own the firm until 1995. Around the time he ceded day-to-day operations of his former search firm, Elder spent more time reading and writing. Among the books he read were The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
Elder's political views are philosophically libertarian and have also been described as conservative, and he is a registered Republican. Following Elder's re-registering as a Republican, in a 2008 interview with The New Individualist Magazine he said, "A lot of my listeners will often call up and say, 'I preferred you when you were a Libertarian.' I always tell them I never was a 'capital-L Libertarian.' I am still 'small-l.' It's a philosophy to me, not a party." Elder supported presidential candidates Harry Browne in 2000, George W. Bush in 2004, and John McCain in 2008.