Royce White was a star high school basketball player, first at DeLaSalle then Hopkins. He played collegiately at the University of Minnesota, then transferred to Iowa State where he led the Cyclones to the NCAA Tournament. The NBA was next when Royce White was chosen 16th overall by Houston.
It was there that mental health issues appeared for White who missed almost the entirety of his rookie season. Contract disputes, travel issues, and criticism of the league for not addressing the mental health of players were the headlines for White as he entered his professional career. Stints in the NBA D League, and Canadian professional leagues followed, but his once promising NBA career fizzled as he continued to be an advocate for mental health issues.
Now Royce White wants to enter the political arena. Tuesday he announced his intent to run against Ilhan Omar in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District. He joins two other GOP candidates in a race to take on Omar who has easily won two Elections in the heavily Democratic District.
White, speaking with WCCO Radio’s Mike Max Tuesday night says despite the GOP struggles in the Fifth, he feels there is change needed.
“We are in a crisis and we are at war and I think Minnesota, and Minneapolis specifically is a huge piece of this cultural war,” says White. "Lacey Johnson raised $12 million last year, even though he wasn't able to be victorious in the campaign. I'll definitely do my best to sound the alarm that this is an important battleground. This is an important battleground for the GOP and there's a huge part of the GOP that's has accepted and conceded territory across the country. They've sort of, you know, bought into this managed decline mentality and become comfortable with losing. I just don't have time for that mentality. I've been a lifelong athlete. I'm a competitor. We don't get involved in only the games that we know we can win. That's not competition.”
White has been an outspoken critic of Democrats and their policies the last several years, and was a frequent guest on former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s online shows. Bannon has provided an endorsement for White.
“Working class people in this country have been lied to by Democrats. Now don't get me wrong. There is a uni-party. There is a sort of Neocon RINO faction of the Republican party of the GOP that's in on it, right? They're in on the Globalist grift, this radical corporatocracy. But the Democrats have been pretty brazen about it and there's no real pushback. We’ve been given a lot of false promises in the black community by the Democrats.”
The Globalism that White talks about is also tied to Steve Bannon and the Trump White House and has been tied to anti-Semitism which White said Tuesday is “ridiculous”.
White told Mike Max Tuesday that he thinks most people don’t understand the local ramifications of the so-called Globalist agenda. White believes there is a conspiratorial group of socialists trying to take over the country and puts Omar and other far-left politicians such as Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in that category.
“We are up against a very loud arrogant and, and unapologetic Globalist agenda,” White explains “It's going to come down hardest on the American citizen, on the working class, on Christians, on Muslims, on Jewish people, on blacks, on whites, on the young, the old and whoever else. And I don't think people really understand that. So, you know, that's the, the real impetus of me deciding to run.”
Royce White was also focused on local events, becoming very visible during the George Floyd and Daunte Wright unrest, at times urging the crowds on.
“After the George Floyd situation took place, I was in the throes of the community, political arena and I was able to take a step back, really look at what was going on around us locally, take my experience from having been involved with the NBA and this global corporate community and try to pin down or understand how the global affects the local. And we're in a crisis.”
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White does have a couple of run-ins with the law, pleading guilty disorderly conduct and theft for a shoplifting incident while he was at the University of Minnesota, along with accusations of failure to pay child support.
So far two other Republican candidates have announced intentions to run in the Fifth District. They are both Black females, Cicely Davis and Shukri Abdullahi Abdirahman.
Despite Omar’s own controversies including accusations of anti-Semitism and being banned from traveling to Israel for comments she made about boycotting that country, she has easily won two Elections to Congress. Omar has also faced numerous threats, has been the target of false claims by former President Donald Trump and has recently been the target of far-right Representative Lauren Boebert from Colorado who referred to Omar as the "Jihad Squad".
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