Royce White Becomes Latest Weirdo to Win a Republican Nomination

After a disappointing showing in the 2022 midterms, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell bemoaned issues of “candidate quality,” like, say, puppy-killer Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania and Slender Man body double Blake Masters in Arizona. But the GOP hardly seems to have learned its lesson based on the outcome of Tuesday’s primaries, which saw Royce White secure the Republican nomination to challenge Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) this November. With a challenger like White vying for U.S. Senate on behalf of Republicans, the party is unlikely to beat the “weird” allegations—the ones put forth by Minnesota’s very own governor (and Dem vice presidential nominee), Tim Walz—any time soon.

Who is “Royce White,” you ask? I’m tempted to let the outraged reactions at HuffPost from NBA Twitter for referring to the former NBA draft pick as a “former NBA star” speak for itself, but alas, I have some time this afternoon and am willing to give you the lowdown. Among no shortage of reasons why White is not currently in the NBA—despite being a first-round draft pick in 2012—is his apparent phobia of flying on airplanes. That fear is matched only by his fear of “mouthy women.” “Women have become too mouthy,” he said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast last year. “As the Black man in the room, I’ll say that.” That’s not really how this works, but sure!

“Royce White, a Former NBA Star” https://t.co/MXLnCvkl8U pic.twitter.com/ASQOfXoIbq

— Mike Zakarian (@MikeZakarian) August 14, 2024

White handily won his primary, securing 38.5% of the vote to former naval intelligence officer Joe Fraser’s 29.2%. Look, I’m no fan of anyone who runs as a Republican, but in terms of “candidate quality,” I’m inclined to think “former naval intelligence officer” should trump “Steve Bannon podcast guest host who’s very publicly called at least four people cunts.” White’s list of heinously offensive, homophobic, anti-semitic, misogynistic, and generally out-of-pocket comments is extensive, and most of his issues seem to start with his introduction to Steve Bannon in 2020. Shortly after he began listening to Bannon’s podcast, White, who was playing in a 3-on-3 pro basketball league called the Big3 at that time, began writing messages on his shaved head for Big3 games including “Alex Jones was right,” “deep state,” “who killed JFK?” and “war room pandemic.” Very, very normal, non-weird stuff.

White quickly went from a devoted listener of Bannon’s podcast to a frequent guest, and, as recently as this weekend, while Bannon is pressed with other obligations (a.k.a currently serving his jail sentence), he’s even guest-hosting it. I don’t know what more you could possibly ask of your senator than “filled in for podcast host in jail on contempt of U.S. Congress.”

In May, Danny Abbas, Senate research director at American Bridge 21st Century, cited White’s self-identification as an anti-abortion “absolutist,” and claimed White has spent “tens of thousands of dollars pressuring a woman to get an abortion. A (somehow) worse version of Herschel Walker and Steve Garvey.” White denied this to Newsweek at the time. But Abbas seems to be referencing White’s ex Fatima Jaed’s claim to Bossip in 2013 that White had offered her $20,000 to have an abortion against her will.

Royce White is looney, but also terrible on policy. He describes himself as an anti-abortion “absolutist” despite himself having paid tens of thousands of dollars pressuring a woman to get an abortion.

A (somehow) worse version of Herschel Walker and Steve Garvey. https://t.co/Qco1N4pXAT

— danny (@dabbs346) May 20, 2024

“Here’s how dumb he is. I’m about to have my baby and he’s still offering me money to get rid of it. So, I told him to send it just to see if he was going to do it and his dumbass did!” Jaed told the outlet at the time. “That’s how out of touch with reality he is. He thinks you can just get rid of a baby like that. He doesn’t care. I know he has asked almost every girl he has ever been with to get an abortion as soon as he knocks them up.” To be unequivocally clear, having an abortion isn’t “getting rid of a baby.” Nevertheless, the allegations from White’s ex are, err, interesting in light of his more recent, public comments on abortion. On Bannon’s podcast in 2022, White celebrated the overturn of Roe v. Wade: “Praise be to the most high! … You can’t have human rights or civil rights without sanctity of life. Protect Black babies! Let’s take America back.”

As White now shifts to run in the general against Klobuchar, it’s already fairly clear how he plans to do so. He’s previously called Klobuchar “the head” of “the swamp” that is D.C. and said she’s responsible for “all this climate change and the LGBTQ” nonsense. As for how he’ll allocate his campaign finances, we have some insight into that, too: In 2022, when he ran (unsuccessfully) in the Republican primary for Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) seat representing the state’s fifth district, White allegedly spent campaign funds on strip clubs, limos, and over $100,000 in shady wire transfers. Excited to see how he tops himself this time around!

As if all of this—the name-calling, the conspiracy theories, the murky financial maneuvering—weren’t enough baggage for the GOP, it doesn’t help that White has an extensive history of pushing wildly anti-semitic conspiracy theories, all while Republicans are trying to push the message that Democrats are anti-semitic because some of them support a ceasefire in Gaza. White has accused Jewish people of being interested in “world control,” and called Israel “the linchpin of the new world order.” When Fraser accused White, a Christian, of anti-semitism, he responded, “You can’t be antisemitic when you pray to a Jewish carpenter every morning for salvation. Jesus Is King!” Again, not how this works!

None of this is to say I expect much from the Republican Party anymore—but I guess I expected them to at least find a homophobic, misogynistic, delusional conspiracy theorist who isn’t afraid of the air travel required to hit the campaign trail.