A former professional basketball player is looking to challenge Rep. Ilhan Omar in the midterms.
Royce White, an author and mental health advocate who once played in the NBA, announced Tuesday he is running for U.S. House as a Republican. He is looking to capture the seat of Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, currently represented by Omar.
“I’m running for Congress because our leaders have sold us out,” he said in his campaign launch video. “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 called Omar a “globalist” and a “puppet for the establishment,” saying those are the reasons he wants to unseat her from office.
“What Big Pharma, Big Tech, and the corporate elites have done to us during this pandemic shows us tyranny is here,” he said, adding that American sovereignty and the soul of the country are “on the line.”
White was born in Minneapolis and raised in St. Paul. He played Division I college basketball at Iowa State University, and his success there led the Houston Rockets to draft him in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft, the 16th overall pick.
He has been an outspoken mental health advocate for years; he was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) at the age of 16 while attending Hopkins High School in Minnetonka.
In a press release announcing his congressional campaign, White provided the following statement:
“Right now we face an enemy that intends to bastardize our citizenship through an idea called globalism. We must begin to understand how the global effects the local and take a stand for God, Family and Country. I have fought against the corporate community responsible for this globalist agenda. I’m ready for this fight.”
White is the third Republican candidate running in Minnesota’s fifth district, joining Shukri Abdirahman and Cicely Davis in the party’s primary, which takes place on Aug. 9.
Watch White’s launch video below:
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
