The former NBA player and Black Lives Matter protester leader became a MAGA star spewing galaxy-brain conspiracies about Jews. Now, he’s got the stamp of approval from the GOP.
In 2022, Royce White—a former first-round NBA draft pick and George Floyd protest leader—ran in the primary for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District as a far-right Republican and disciple of Steve Bannon. White lost—badly. This is probably because he was hard to take seriously as a candidate. White’s campaign centered less on issues affecting Minnesota voters and more on incendiary comments about the Chinese Communist Party, women, and Jews.
At the time, it prompted the obvious question: What happened to turn this erstwhile civil rights activist into MAGA podcaster? We published a long piece examining White’s “tinfoil hat populism.” (To give a sense of White’s tone, he called our reporter a “cuck” for doing that work; fun!)
After this defeat, one might assume an end to White’s political journey. Especially because, in many ways, his public image has somehow gotten worse. Earlier this week, the Daily Beast reported that White’s 2022 campaign spent lavishly, including thousands at strip clubs.
But, no quitter, White persisted. In an outsider campaign, he announced last year he would run for US Senate in 2024. This week—somehow—White won the endorsement of the Republican party to face Sen. Amy Klobuchar in Minnesota.
Jacob Rosenberg is an articles editor for Mother Jones based in New York City.
