Basketball Player Royce White Runs for Congress, Challenging Ilhan Omar

"Free the Uyghurs" is seen on the head of Royce White #30 of the Power during the game against the Killer 3's during BIG3—Week Four at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on July 31, 2021. Cooper Neill/Getty Images for BIG3

A professional basketball player and activist, Royce White, announced last week he will run for Congress as a Republican for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, seeking to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

White had a brief career in the NBA from 2012 to 2014. He then played professional basketball in Canada for two years. Currently, he’s a professional player in The BIG3 basketball and mixed martial arts (MMA). He said he fought against NBA to create a mental health policy and “paid the price” with his career.

“I’m running for Congress because our leaders have sold us out. We have to fight for freedom. We have to protect our communities. We have to restore what it means to be an American citizen. We have to fight the momentum of globalism,” White said in a campaign video.

“What Big Pharma, Big Tech, and the corporate elites have done to us during this pandemic shows us tyranny is here. The line has been drawn, and it’s pretty damn clear. We the People no longer have a choice,” White continued, adding Omar is “in on it,” and she is a “globalist.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) speaks in Brooklyn Center, Minn., on April 20, 2021.

Omar announced her reelection bid on Jan. 31. She won her two previous elections with large leads, 78.0 percent in 2018 and 64.3 percent of the vote in 2020, respectively.

“This district has been voting blue for a long time, and I hope that I can shake that up,” White told the Star Tribune on Feb. 22. “I hope that I can make people see that for a long time, they voted against their own interests.”

White has led or attended multiple protests following George Floyd’s death, condemning police violence and calling for accountability.

In the first week of The BIG3’s 2021 season, White appeared in a T-shirt that read “Free The Uyghurs.” Later he touched upon other sensitive topics such as gain of function research, The Federal Reserve, Julian Assange, The Great Reset, Ivermectin, etc.

Royce White #30 of the Power is introduced before the game against the Killer 3's during BIG3—Week Four at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on July 31, 2021. Cooper Neill/Getty Images for BIG3

White will face Cicely Davis and Shukri (Shu) Abdirahman in the Aug. 9 primary.

According to public court records, White is the subject of several pending civil court proceedings, including some active judgments against him in a total of nearly $178,000. The cases include failure to pay child support and a recently settled eviction case.

In 2009 he was convicted of a misdemeanor and a petty misdemeanor.

“Pay your child support,” Abdirahman responded to White’s race announcement on Twitter.

“I’ve paid plenty of child support. Don’t you think it’s odd that it doesn’t show how much support I’ve actually ... paid, only how much I owe? Never mind… You’re just not ready yet. Get behind me,” White replied.

Abdirahman, like Omar, also came from Somalia. She said on her campaign website, “Ilhan and I have such similar upbringings as Somali refugees who escaped from socialism, but we went down two different paths.”

Early last month, Abdirahman announced she had raised over $100,000 in the first week soliciting donations.