Some Minnesota Republicans distance themselves from U.S. Senate candidate Royce White
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If you ask Minnesota Republicans about fellow GOP candidate Royce White, many are likely to pivot.
White is the only Minnesota Republican running statewide this year, but fellow GOPers are keeping a distance on the campaign trail from a candidate with past legal troubles and known for derogatory remarks, some of which align with conspiracy theories.
White won the party’s U.S. Senate endorsement in May and its nomination in the primary election last month. He’ll face off against three-term Democratic incumbent Sen. Amy Klobuchar this fall.
Also on the ballot are Libertarian Party candidate Rebecca Whiting and Independence Alliance candidate Joyce Lacey.
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White has his party’s stamp of approval by virtue of his primary victory. Party chair David Hann has acknowledged that White is not out of “central casting” for candidates and said the party would help the candidate as it does others. But that doesn’t mean he’s getting the full GOP embrace.
“I’ve never met Royce White,” three-term U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber of the 8th Congressional District in northeastern Minnesota told MPR’s Morning Edition last month. “And maybe along the way I will, but I’m focused on my race.”
Republican Joe Teirab is challenging DFL Rep. Angie Craig in the 2nd Congressional District, which covers some southern Twin Cities suburbs and runs into farm country. He said he hadn’t heard from voters about the candidate running at the top of the ticket.
“I’m only focused on my race, and honestly, when I talk to people at a door in a grocery store we’re just talking about the issues that are mattering,” Teirab said. “If anyone comes up, it’s almost always, you know, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz or Angie Craig.”
While candidates sometimes campaign together or circulate literature for one another, many Republicans have bypassed appearances with the Senate nominee.
Some of that could be due to White’s style; he’s combative and has used language offensive to women, gay people and Jewish people — characterizations that drew him criticism from a Republican primary opponent, but that he says have been twisted against him.
In a section of his website added last month, he rejects accusations that he’s antisemitic. He goes on to say identity politics has been used to justify bigger government at the national and international level.
White also allegedly misspent campaign funds on personal expenses, including at a Miami strip club, during a 2022 bid for the U.S. House of Representatives. He has since filed amended campaign reports.
And he has had debt judgments against him for child support, which he said stem from a steep drop in pay after his professional basketball career ended and arrears that he has worked to address.
White called the focus on those problems smears and a distraction from important policy issues.
White told MPR’s Politics Friday that he doesn’t hold Republicans keeping him at arms length in high regard either.
“They can say why they’re doing it all they want to,” White said. “The reality is they’re not too far, they’re not too much of a departure from the status quo themselves.”
White is running as a political outsider who said he doesn’t need the support from the GOP establishment. There are some sitting officeholders in his corner; first-term state Sen. Nathan Wesenberg, R-Little Falls, helped out at White’s State Fair booth and touted him in other settings.
White has slammed the National Republican Senatorial Committee for not backing him. He entered the campaign stretch run at a substantial financial disadvantage compared to Klobuchar.
He said fellow Republicans too readily work across the aisle with Democrats in Washington. Too many are weak-stomached, he said.
“You can have politicians that smile and wave, that are polished, that are polite, and they often become puppets,” White said.
For the most part, those on the ballot with him would rather not talk about the avoidance approach.
House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said she is encouraging Republican candidates to focus on their own races as they try to win control of the Minnesota House.
“We don’t dictate what is at the top of the ticket, but we can work hard in our own districts and make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to pick up those last remaining four seats that we need to bring us into that majority,” she said.
For those who are out of office, it’s easier to weigh in. Former state Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, left the Legislature this summer after about 20 years in office. Garofalo isn’t holding back about White.
“Do people really need to be given advice that they should stay away from a candidate who spent campaign dollars on strippers and was delinquent on child support payments?” Garofalo asked. “Everyone's going to keep this guy six feet away.”
It’s a strategy GOP candidates have used before.
In 2022, the two Republicans who came close to winning their races — state auditor candidate Ryan Wilson and attorney general candidate Jim Schultz — also avoided campaigning with the party’s nominee for governor, Scott Jensen, and Secretary of State candidate, Kim Crockett. That was due to hard-right stances both took that drew negative attention, from abortion to election laws. Jensen lost by a large margin to DFL Gov. Tim Walz and Crockett was easily beaten by DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon.
It’s not yet clear whether White and Klobuchar will have a debate before the election. The pair joined in a panel discussion last month at the trade show Farmfest.