MINNEAPOLIS — Republican Royce White has defeated Joe Fraser in the Minnesota primary election and will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar on the November ballot.  

White, a 33-year-old Minneapolis native who briefly played in the NBA, won 38% of the votes while Fraser earned 29% in what political experts saw as a struggle for the soul of the Minnesota Republican Party.

Fraser, 50, was originally believed to be the frontrunner, but was stunned when White comfortably won the party’s nomination at May’s GOP convention. While he initially ceded, Fraser backtracked and renewed his fight against White.

White aims to be GOP’s future

White says he can steer younger voters and voters of color to the GOP. On his campaign website, he says he will be a leader who won’t “sell out.”

“We face an enemy that intends to bastardize our citizenship through an idea called globalism. We must begin to understand how the global affects the local and take a stand for God, Family, and Country,” White said. “I have fought against the corporate community responsible for this globalist agenda. Send me to Washington so I can continue that fight on the Senate floor in the swamp.”

His opponent told WCCO’s Esme Murphy in July that White is far from a good fit for the party.

“It just became evident that (White) is not somebody that I view embodies the spirit of the Republican Party,” Fraser said. “This is a man who in his own Twitter feed had said that he voted for Joe Biden four years ago and then this last week denied that.”

Democratic strategist Abou Amara told Murphy in June that White “presents deeper problems for the Republican ticket,” and holds political views that most Minnesotans “would reject.”

“At the grassroots level, you’ve got Royce White, who’s endorsed by Steve Bannon and other kind of far extreme right-wing folks, but he won the endorsement,” Amara said. “I think Joe Fraser represents kind of the Tim Pawlenty lane, if you will, of the Minnesota Republican Party. And so they’re on a collision course.”

Several establishment Republicans took the unprecedented step of publicly backing Fraser after his convention loss, including former Sens. Rudy Boschwitz and Norm Coleman and former Gov. Pawlenty. White told Murphy in June that the era they represent is over.

“To be honest, all three of them lost their last statewide elections and they are connected to over 30 years of statewide losses in the Republican Party,” White said.

In fact, Pawlenty was the last Minnesota Republican to win a statewide race when he was reelected governor in 2006.

Who is Royce White?

White was crowned Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball in 2009 after leading the Hopkins boy’s basketball team in its legendary undefeated season.

White joined the Gophers but left the University of Minnesota just months into his first semester after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct and theft in connection to an incident at Mall of America. Soon after, he was accused of stealing a laptop from a U dorm, but no charges were filed.

White then went to Iowa State and helped lead his team to the NCAA tournament in 2012.

He briefly played for the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings, but struggles with an anxiety disorder and a fear of flying led to a quick exit from the NBA. Despite his hardships, he was applauded for launching a league-wide discussion on mental health.

He played two stellar seasons in the NBL Canada before a short-lived foray into MMA fighting. He currently plays in the Big3 3-on-3 basketball league.

White’s political ambitions come with controversy

White sought to run against Democratic Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in 2022 but lost the Republican primary to Cicely Davis.

He attracted national media attention during that campaign for his promotion of conspiracy theories, self-identifying as “antisemitic” in a social media post, calling women “mouthy” and spending $1,200 of campaign money at a strip club in Miami.

When asked by podcaster David Pakman about that expense, White replied “I like the food there.” A complaint was eventually filed with the Federal Election Commission accusing White of misappropriating more than $157,000 of his 2022 campaign money. White has denied the accusations and says he’s working to revise the campaign filings in question.

Amid the 2024 campaign, news surfaced that White also owes tens of thousands of dollars in child support payments.

Who is Joe Fraser?

According to Fraser’s campaign website, he served in the U.S. Navy for 26 years; was a founding member of the U.S. Cyber Command Joint Intelligence Operations Center; and was director of Information Warfare at the Navy’s Aviation Warfighting Development Center.

Fraser’s website says he’s currently “an executive director at a major financial institution, where he serves as Senior Business Execution Advisor.”

Fraser said as a senator, he would “work to put an end to the crises at our borders, to tackle rising consumer prices and our historic national debt, and to ensure our streets and country are safe from those who wish to cause us harm.”

Klobuchar is in her third term and won her last two elections with sizeable leads over her GOP challengers. Her war chest contains nearly $19 million, in stark contrast to the $85,000 in White’s campaign account.