The Minnesota Republican Party has made an endorsement in the state's 2024 U.S. Senate race: Former basketball star Royce White — a far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist with a history of antisemitic and anti-gay remarks. If White wins his party's nomination in August, he will be up against incumbent Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the general election.
In the past, White was a Black Lives Matter activist. But that was before he took a far-right turn and became a major ally of "War Room" host Steve Bannon and Infowars' Alex Jones.
In her May 24 column, liberal New York Times opinion writer Michelle Goldberg argues that a White nomination would likely be a major "gift" for Democrats. She wrote that in one appearance on Jones' show, White suggested police would one day forcibly vaccinate children, prompting Jones to say, "you’re awesome, you’re dead-on, and we’re going to learn a lot from you." She lamented that someone with such extreme views has been endorsed by the Minnesota GOP.
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"If he is the Republican nominee," Goldberg writes, "White will probably be a gift to Democrats this cycle, particularly at a time when Republicans hope to exploit liberal divides over Israel. But while the mainstreaming of figures like White may be useful to Democrats in the short term, in the long term, it's a sign of a collapsed consensus about the nature of reality that bodes ill for liberal democracy."
Goldberg discussed White's campaign with Michael Brodkorb, former deputy chair of the Minnesota GOP and a critic of its current ultra-MAGA direction.
Brodkorb told Goldberg, "Right now, there's a highly motivated core of Alex Jones, Steve Bannon-esque Republicans (in Minnesota)…. The party's going to have an obligation, in some ways, to support the endorsement process."
Goldberg notes that any Republican "who takes White" in Minnesota will "have to go up against both the establishment and the insurgent wing of the party."
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"If a challenger succeeds in wresting the nomination from (White)," Goldberg observes, "that person's reward will be an uphill contest against Amy Klobuchar, who has, according to one recent poll, a 54 percent approval rating in the state."
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Michelle Goldberg's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).
