David A. French

In January 2016, French said that he would vote for Donald Trump if he became the Republican nominee; he later changed his mind and said he would not vote for Trump. Political commentator Bill Kristol, a supporter of the Stop Trump movement, named French as his choice to run for U.S. president as an independent conservative candidate to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Trump on May 31. On June 5, French announced that he had considered running, but ultimately decided otherwise. In a June 18, 2016, interview with The Daily Herald, French revealed that he had strongly considered entering the presidential race, but ultimately decided that he had neither the name recognition nor the financial support to mount a viable campaign.

In 2016, French and his wife and family were the subject of online attacks when he criticized then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and the alt-right. French was bombarded with hateful tweets, including an image of his child in a gas chamber.

French is a former major in the United States Army Reserve and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. French was deployed to Iraq in 2007 during the Iraq War, serving in Diyala Governorate as squadron judge advocate. He was awarded a Bronze Star.

French is an evangelical Christian, who is married to author Nancy French. French and his family have lived in Columbia, Tennessee, since 2006. They have three children, including a daughter adopted from Ethiopia.

French has served as a senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defending Freedom, has lectured at Cornell Law School and spent much of his career working on religious-rights issues. He served as president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). French retired from FIRE in 2005, citing plans to serve in the United States Army Reserve as a judge advocate general officer. A staff writer for National Review from 2015 to 2019, and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, French has authored several books. In October 2019, he left National Review to work at The Dispatch, a conservative news site.

French graduated summa cum laude from Lipscomb University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then went on to Harvard Law School where he graduated cum laude in 1994 with a Juris Doctor degree.

David Austin French (born January 24, 1969) is an American attorney, journalist, and author. A fellow at the National Review Institute, in October, 2019, French accepted the post of senior editor at The Dispatch.