Minnesota GOP's endorsed Senate candidate has faced court actions over unpaid child support

Royce White, a George Floyd protest leader and former college basketball star-turned-right-wing Senate candidate in Minnesota, was ordered to catch up after he fell behind on court-mandated child support payments at least a half-dozen times from 2020 to 2023, court filings in two cases show.

White, a father of four, was twice found in contempt of court over the findings, one of them in a Minnesota county where he remains in “constructive contempt,” facing the ongoing threat of a 180-day jail sentence should he again fail to keep up with the payments. The next hearing in that case is set for Oct. 21, two weeks before the election.

White’s candidacy has generated new attention after the Minnesota Republican Party endorsed him this month at its state convention, where he won the support of two-thirds of the voting delegates. He previously lost a GOP primary in a 2022 effort to unseat Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and has raised a paltry sum for his Senate campaign, according to campaign finance records. But he has caught fire with conservatives by delivering rousing speeches and aiming incendiary, vulgar commentary at critics and opponents online.

White still must survive a contested GOP primary, but the state party has elevated him as former President Donald Trump and his campaign make noise about flipping Minnesota red at the presidential level this fall for the first time since 1972. It has been more than 20 years since a Republican won a Senate seat in the state. And a number of GOP strategists do not think White gets them any closer to beating Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November.

Speaking with reporters last week, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s