Miller, who grew up in Santa Monica, California, has been connected to white nationalist ideas since his college days as an undergraduate at Duke University.
A member of the Duke Conservative Union, Miller worked with classmate Richard Spencer, who would eventually become the de facto face of the white supremacist movement. There, they organized a debate featuring Peter Brimelow, a prominent white nationalist. Brimelow has written extensively about the dangers of nonwhite immigration and runs a commentary site called VDARE, named after the first white child born in what would become the United States, Virginia Dare.
Spencer told Mother Jones the two were close at Duke, but Miller denied having any relationship with Spencer.
University of Oregon journalism professor Peter Laufer, who debated Brimelow at the event, told us that Miller and Spencer worked closely together as the driving forces behind the event. Laufer went out to dinner with both Miller and Spencer before the debate, and then got drinks with them afterward.
“Any suggestion they were not partners is not accurate,” Laufer said.
While the event was a debate, Laufer said both Miller and Spencer clearly backed Brimelow’s xenophobic, anti-immigration stance over Laufer’s advocacy of open borders.
“They were nothing but gracious hosts,” Laufer said. “But that is not to suggest their politics weren’t, and aren’t, repugnant. It’s hard imagining two worse examples of distasteful, obnoxious, counterproductive hateful behavior. It continues to amaze me that the two of them have been able to so successfully influence the direction of the country.”