David Horowitz, the influential conservative writer and activist who underwent a dramatic political transformation from Marxist radical to right-wing standard-bearer, died this week at the age of 86 following a lengthy battle with cancer.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center, the conservative think tank he founded in 1988, announced his death on social media.
“On behalf of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, we are very saddened to announce the passing of the Center’s founder, David Horowitz,” the organization stated on its X account.
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
Born in New York on January 10, 1939, Horowitz was raised by schoolteacher parents who “remained steadfast in their commitment to” the “progressive left” and “its Marxist version of a liberated society,” according to a memorial video posted by the Freedom Center.
Following in his parents’ political footsteps, Horowitz became deeply involved in left-wing politics as a young man, eventually becoming editor of the New Left magazine “Root & Branch.”
By 1969, however, Horowitz began questioning the movement he had long supported, later explaining he “realized, even at that time, you couldn’t really remake the world as the left intended without totalitarian coercion.” The 1975 death of bookkeeper Betty Van Patter, which occurred after Horowitz had grown close to Black Panther leader Huey Newton, served as the catalyst for his political transformation.
“In a vignette that Horowitz wrote at the request of the New York Times Magazine, Horowitz recounted the stages of his metamorphosis,” the Freedom Center stated. “Being at the center of a heroic myth inspired passions that informed my youthful passage and guided me to the middle of my adult life, but then I was confronted by a reality so inescapable and harsh that it shattered the romance for good.”
Horowitz received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and earned a Master’s from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1984, he cast his first Republican vote for Ronald Reagan and went on to become one of the conservative movement’s most outspoken advocates for the next four decades.
As founder of the Freedom Center, Horowitz created the online journal “FrontPage Magazine” and authored numerous books on American political culture. His work often focused on what he viewed as left-wing indoctrination in education and the media.
In recent years, Horowitz became a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump. According to an obituary shared by his son Benjamin Horowitz, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, when Benjamin met Trump last year, “President Trump’s face immediately lit up and he insisted that Benjamin get David on the phone immediately. Hospitalized and weak, David was still delighted to speak with the President.”
Horowitz is survived by his fourth wife, April Mullvain, sons Benjamin and Jonathan, and daughter Anne. Another daughter, Sarah Rose, died in 2008.
“In the end, David helped countless people and expended every fiber of his being pushing society towards freedom,” his family’s obituary stated. “He may not have saved the world, but he most certainly made it a better place – especially for us. He was our super hero and we will love him forever.”