Anti-establishment Republican and former NBA player Royce White lost his bid for a U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday after losing to incumbent Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in Minnesota’s primary election showdown.
White had acknowledged he was as surprised as anyone when the state Republican Party endorsed him in May, but the self-described populist won a plurality in the August primary against a more mainstream Republican, Navy veteran Joe Fraser.
White tweeted that he is not done trying to change the Republican Party in Minnesota and nationally, and questioned whether Senate Republicans will use their new majority to put America’s interests first and slow the nation’s decline.
White was a first-round pick of the Houston Rockets in 2012, but never played for the team after revealing mental health issues and saying he did not want to fly to road games with the team. He signed multiple 10-day contracts with the Sacramento Kings in 2013, playing in three games, but was eventually released before playing overseas for several years.
White, 33, who was a strong advocate for mental health awareness in sports, also considered a future in mixed martial arts but lost his only professional fight in 2021.
White has made a series of comments on social media that have been reported as derogatory. White, who ran and lost in the GOP primary for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022, argued that as a Black candidate he could broaden the party’s base by appealing to voters of color in Minneapolis-St . Paul Area and others are disillusioned with establishment politics.
He entered the race as a clear loser to Klobuchar, whose fourth-term victory sets the Minnesota record for most consecutive victories by a Democratic senator since the state began directly electing senators in 1918, according to curator Eric Ostermeier. of Minnesota’s Historic Elections. University of Minnesota Archive.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
