Ex-NBA star will face Amy Klobuchar for Senate seat after winning GOP primary despite strip club scandal

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Former NBA player and Republican Senate candidate Royce White will challenge longtime Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar in November after winning his primary.

White, 33, became GOP nominee in his home state after defeating Joe Fraser, a Navy veteran, in Tuesday’s primary. White earned 39 percent of the vote while Fraser earned 29 percent.

In 2012, White was a first-round draft pick for the Houston Rockets. However, due to his anxiety disorder and fear of flying, he didn’t end up playing for the team, as he said he was unable to travel to games across the country.

“It’s a day-by-day struggle for me,” the power forward told CNN at the time. The following year, he played three games for the Sacramento Kings and later played for teams in Canada.

White has been an outspoken mental health advocate since his time in the NBA, and has made the issue a staple of his campaign, according to his website.

In 2022, White ran for a House seat in Minnesota, attempting to defeat Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar but lost the primary.

In June, he came under fire over his 2022 campaign spending, which indicated he had spent money at a strip club. Records show White spent more than $1,000 in a single night at Gold Rush Cabaret, a “fully-nude strip club,” in Miami.

When pressed about it in an interview, White denounced the Daily Beast, which first reported the campaign expense, and suggested his staffers went to the strip club instead of him. He then clarified that the cash wasn’t spent on strippers specifically.

“The Daily Beast is not a good source, that’s for one,” White said. “No, they didn’t say that I spend the funds at a strip club.”

“Or no, let’s say, they didn’t say that I spent the funds on strippers,” he continued. “They sell food at a strip club, don’t they?”

He added: “I’m not saying that I spent the money. I’m saying that there was a filing on my FEC report that shouldn’t have been there, and potentially should have been reimbursed by somebody [else], who may have been at the strip club. But ... there is food at the strip club, so to say it was spent on strippers is not based on factual evidence.”