Perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche dead at 96

LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — Lyndon LaRouche Jr., the political extremist who ran for president in every election from 1976 to 2004, including a campaign waged from federal prison, has died. He was 96.

LaRouche's political action committee confirmed Wednesday on its website that LaRouche died a day earlier.

The cult-like figure, who espoused a wide range of conspiracy theories and advocated for an overhaul of the world's economic and financial systems, ran first as a U. S. Labor Party candidate and later, after an apparent shift to the right, as a Democratic or independent candidate.