Royce White: A candidate’s controversial path from NBA to Maga

A Republican senate candidate in Minnesota has taken a meandering path from sport into politics, where he has earned support from the far-right fringes.

Now he faces a difficult battle to enter Congress.

Royce White, a former standout basketball player, won the GOP primary on Tuesday, capturing 38.5% of the vote in a crowded eight-candidate field.

He was seen as an underdog before he won the endorsement of the state party delegates in May. But his fringe views and tough competition in the form of incumbent Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar mean that he is a longshot to win the general election.

Mr White, a Minnesota native, was a star high school player on two state championship teams before taking the court at Iowa State University.

He was drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2012 even though his severe fear of flying hampered his ability to travel.

Ultimately he saw little action in the league, playing in just three games, and later tried his hand at mixed martial arts and Big3, the 3-on-3 basketball league co-founded by rapper Ice Cube.

Meanwhile, his openness about his struggles with mental health issues, including anxiety, gave him a wide public platform.

After the murder of George Floyd in his home state in 2020, Mr White, who is black, organised and led protests, although he says on his web site these were separate from the larger Black Lives Matter demonstrations that swept through the country.

Since then, Mr White’s politics have taken an increasingly rightward and conspiratorial turn.

A frequent guest on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, he has occasionally slid into the hosting chair while Bannon – former chief strategist to Donald Trump – serves time in prison for contempt of Congress.

In 2022, Mr White tried to challenge progressive Democrat Ilhan Omar for her US House seat in Minneapolis, but he failed to make the first step, losing the Republican primary.

Along the way Mr White has racked up a list of controversies.

While playing in Big3 games, he’s written political slogans on his bald scalp including “United States of the Federal Reserve”, “Deep state” and “Alex Jones was right” – his campaign website currently includes an endorsement from the conspiracy theorist.

A watchdog group has alleged in a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission that his House campaign spent more than $150,000 (£117,000) on White’s personal expenses including gym fees, clothing and bills at a strip club.

He has repeated conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic and about “Jewish elites”, and also made public statements that have raised the ire of people in his party and out, such as saying that “women have become too mouthy”.

The Republican Jewish Coalition labelled him anti-Semitic and opposed him in the primary election after he made comments about Jewish people and supporting Kanye West.

Mr White has accused his critics of being in a “white liberal ivory tower” and argued that he is being attacked for holding conservative values.

His campaign – which the BBC reached out to for comment – has posted a long rebuttal of criticisms against him. Among them, Mr White says that he has accounted for most of his campaign funds and rejects charges of anti-Semitism.

Earlier this year, Mr White was seen as highly unlikely to capture the Republican Senate nomination against his main opponent, Joe Fraser, a military veteran and businessman.

However, his association with Bannon and his controversial statements “created an explosion of enthusiasm and support for him at the Republican convention among the anti-establishment far-right,” said Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota.

Mr White won the endorsement of the state party at that meeting in May.

Mr Fraser briefly considered dropping out of the race but continued on to Tuesday’s primary with the endorsements of a number of prominent Minnesota Republicans. The establishment support wasn’t enough, and he garnered a little less than 30% of the vote.

Celebrating his underdog victory, Mr White posted on X: “I am committed to growing the base, bringing disenfranchised Democrats into the tent, and unifying all conservatives in Minnesota.”

But now he faces a major challenge in trying to unseat Ms Klobuchar, a popular Democrat who won her last re-election with more than 60% of the vote.

The state Democratic Party called him “a far-right extremist.

And Mr Jacobs, the politics professor, gives Mr White “no chance” of winning in November.

“Amy Klobuchar is popular even among Republicans, she has $6m in the bank, and I doubt that Royce White is going to raise very much money at all,” he says. “There’s not one aspect of this race that favours Royce White.”

The race, he says, is yet another indication of how the Republican Party is now dominated by Donald Trump and the Maga movement.

“Sometimes Trump has been able to get behind candidates who prevail,” Mr Jacobs said, citing JD Vance’s victory in the Ohio senate race in 2022. “But you also get a lot of candidates who are very weak, and taking advantage of this moment of right-wing chaos.”