MINNEAPOLIS—Royce White, a former professional basketball player and radio host, won the Republican primary on Aug. 13 for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election in November against Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
Fraser, by contrast, was supported by more establishment Republican figures, such as former Gov. Tim Pawlenty—the last Republican elected to statewide office in Minnesota in 2006—and former U.S. Sens. Norm Coleman and Rudy Boschwitz. Fraser’s campaign primarily focused on White’s electability.
In 2022, White ran for Congress in the Republican primary for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, covering metropolitan Minneapolis, which has been represented by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) since 2018. He lost the primary.
Several Republican voters in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area of Minnesota expressed approval of White’s position on Israel.
“I’m not entirely pro-Israel,” Will Millner, a 19-year-old Republican voter in West St. Paul, told The Epoch Times. “Israel is a lot more well funded and they have an advanced military, so I think that the U.S. should spend more money helping our citizens and whatnot, rather than sending money to foreign aid.”
“I lean toward Royce White because he was talking a lot about things that affect me, like gas prices, groceries, and I really felt that he focused more on those issues personally than the other guy, for Republicans,” Millner noted.
![Will Millner, an incoming college student, voted in the Republican Primary at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in West St. Paul, Minnesota, on Aug. 13, 2024. (Arjun Singh/The Epoch Times)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F08%2F14%2Fid5705368-Millner-1200x1600.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
Voters for Fraser, by contrast, spoke of his military experience as an attractive trait. “I feel he’s more experienced. He’s been there and knows what he’s doing,” Deborah Neppel, an elderly Republican voter in downtown Minneapolis, told The Epoch Times.
White’s personal history has attracted controversy for other reasons, such as his participation in the Black Lives Matter movement and protests after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. It led several national Republican groups to dismiss his candidacy and likelihood of success.
“I don’t think he can win a general election,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters in May.
White defended his past comments in a telephone interview with The Epoch Times shortly before the primary.
“There are black elites in this country, Hispanic elites in this country, [and] white elites in this country. If you can’t say that there are Jewish elites, we’re just not dealing with reality,” White said. “To call me anti-Semitic ... this has become a trope that people use when they can’t say anything else, and it’s a harm to the Jewish people.”
“I love the Jewish people. I’m a Christian. I wholeheartedly believe that the Old Testament and New Testament ... are just equally as important in the Hebrew Bible, and it’s central to my life,” White added.
White has heavily lagged in fundraising and polling against Klobuchar, who is seeking reelection to a fourth term. He has raised only $132,721 for his campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), whereas Klobuchar has raised more than $18.9 million for her principal committee and more than $3.7 million for her political action committee.
“Senator Amy Klobuchar is focused on bringing people together to get things done, and she is consistently ranked as one of the most bipartisan and effective legislators in the Senate,” wrote Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Ken Martin in a statement on the primary result.