Republican Royce White to face Amy Klobuchar in November, early primary returns show

Royce White will face U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November after he won Tuesday’s Republican primary election, according to unofficial primary results.

The ex-NBA player, who won the Minnesota Republican Party’s endorsement in May, beat Navy veteran Joe Fraser. A business executive, Fraser was endorsed by Minnesota GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former U.S. Sens. Norm Coleman and Rudy Boschwitz.

“Bring it on commies… The People Are Coming!” tweeted White on Tuesday evening, accompanied with a clip of a fight scene from the movie “Troy.”

Minnesota Republican voters opted for White despite his history of scandal: He pleaded guilty to theft and disorderly conduct, fallen behind on child support, denigrated women and LGBTQ people, and allegedly violated campaign finance laws by illegally spending thousands in campaign donations on strip clubs and mysterious wire transfers, among other scandals. He also called himself an antisemite on his own Twitter profile.

Klobuchar, who was first elected in 2006, is heavily favored to win in November.

White is likely to be a distraction for Minnesota Republicans, now forced to run with a candidate who is a MAGA conspiracy theorist, his worldview once described by Mother Jones this way:

“He believes that the Democrats, Bill Gates, the World Economic Forum, President Xi Jinping, the CCP, non-MAGA Republicans, George Soros, ‘millennial purple-haired white liberal women,’ ‘the Church of LGBTQ,’ the National Basketball Association, and various government agencies all act on behalf of the same ‘global corporate community.’”

Minnesota DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin in a statement said Republicans chose a far-right extremist as their candidate.

“While Royce White’s language and policies seek to divide Minnesotans, Senator Amy Klobuchar is focused on bringing people together to get things done, and she is consistently ranked as one of the most bipartisan and effective legislators in the Senate. The choice this November could not be more clear,” Martin said.

White has the support of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, who is currently in federal prison, and disgraced conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Former GOP operative Andy Brehm was bereft Tuesday night. Echoing the sentiment of GOP elites, he wrote on X: “Serious parties don’t do things like this.”