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A former professional basketball player who was crushed in Minnesota’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday has announced a surprise run for president, declaring: “Now the real fun begins.”
Royce White, 35, a star of the college game who played briefly in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings and for London Lightning in Canada as a power forward, picked up just 11.2 percent of the vote in his home state.
Ex-NFL reporter Michele Tafoya won the primary with 52.1 percent as runner-up Adam Schwarze picked up 24 percent.
Undeterred by his comprehensive defeat, White posted on X Wednesday that his next career move will be to launch a bid for the White House, beginning next week.
“I don’t care how much money they say I need or how much a** I’m supposed to kiss. It ain’t going to happen! We win MVP of the WNBA and then head to the Oval Office,” he wrote.
Ex-professional basketball player Royce White was defeated in this week's Minnesota Republican Senate primary and has already announced his intention to run for the presidency insteadopen image in gallery
Ex-professional basketball player Royce White was defeated in this week's Minnesota Republican Senate primary and has already announced his intention to run for the presidency instead
White was alluding to his recent spoof announcement that he now identifies as transgender and plans to enter next year’s WNBA draft, a response to Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham’s recent comments objecting to trans athletes taking part in women’s basketball.
White appeared on The Benny Show this week wearing a wig and calling on the WNBA to “respect his glow up” and “feminine era” and let him play, a pitch that has also been made by Enes Kanter, another male ex-pro.
Continuing his post, the conservative insisted he is determined to stay in politics to alter the status quo: “Minnesota nice has killed our state. We still believe in moderates, it’s embarrassing.
“I will never concede to center left moderates or independents who have enabled these communists. The Republicans who beg for their votes are traitors. They are how we got this far into insanity, not conservatives.”
White wore a wig in an interview with Benny Johnson about the WNBAopen image in gallery
White wore a wig in an interview with Benny Johnson about the WNBA (The Benny Show/X)
His rant veered into an attack on Tafoya on the grounds that her sporting background rendered her inauthentic: “Michele Tafoya? Sideline reporter going to fight the deep state? How ridiculous on face value.
“She’s not and the sad part is, I think some people voted for her because deep down they know she’s not.”
Signing off, White proclaimed: “We didn’t lose tonight… We WON! We got another clear look at the enemy and the enemy is us.
“We comply with the lies and we all know it… We’re going to the next level. I don’t take breaks!”
The candidate did actually win a GOP Senate primary two years ago, only to go on to lose to Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar, who is now her party’s nominee to succeed Tim Walz in the governor’s mansion.