Royce White: A candidate’s controversial path from NBA to Maga

Earlier this year, Mr White was seen as highly unlikely to capture the Republican Senate nomination against his main opponent, Joe Fraser, a military veteran and businessman.

However, his association with Bannon and his controversial statements “created an explosion of enthusiasm and support for him at the Republican convention among the anti-establishment far-right,” said Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota.

Mr White won the endorsement of the state party at that meeting in May.

Mr Fraser briefly considered dropping out of the race but continued on to Tuesday’s primary with the endorsements of a number of prominent Minnesota Republicans. The establishment support wasn’t enough, and he garnered a little less than 30% of the vote.

Celebrating his underdog victory, Mr White posted on X: “I am committed to growing the base, bringing disenfranchised Democrats into the tent, and unifying all conservatives in Minnesota.”

But now he faces a major challenge in trying to unseat Ms Klobuchar, a popular Democrat who won her last re-election with more than 60% of the vote.

The state Democratic Party called him “a far-right extremist.

And Mr Jacobs, the politics professor, gives Mr White “no chance” of winning in November.

“Amy Klobuchar is popular even among Republicans, she has $6m in the bank, and I doubt that Royce White is going to raise very much money at all,” he says. “There’s not one aspect of this race that favours Royce White.”

The race, he says, is yet another indication of how the Republican Party is now dominated by Donald Trump and the Maga movement.

“Sometimes Trump has been able to get behind candidates who prevail,” Mr Jacobs said, citing JD Vance’s victory in the Ohio senate race in 2022. “But you also get a lot of candidates who are very weak, and taking advantage of this moment of right-wing chaos.”