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Minnesota Reformer
GOP-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate mistakes drinking fountains for crime in map mix-up
By Christopher Ingraham,
2024-06-12
A view of "Alex Jones Was Right" written on the head of Royce White #30 of the Power during the game against the Bivouac in BIG3 Week 5 at Comerica Center on July 17, 2022 in Frisco, Texas. Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images for BIG3.
On Tuesday evening Royce White, the Minnesota GOP-endorsed candidate to challenge U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, posted a map to Twitter, now X, with the following caption: “Crime in Minneapolis…Out of control. Come on now. Refund the police! #Godspeed”
Royce White via X
The sentiment was standard fare for a political party that often seeks to make crime a centerpiece of its election campaigns.
It also reflects poorly on the state political party that endorsed him in May despite much of his history being public knowledge, and which so far has stood by him as new revelations have surfaced.
“He’s a very engaging guy,” Minnesota Republican Party chairman David Hann told KSTP late last month , after the campaign finance irregularities surfaced. “I think we have to give him the opportunity to make the case. He’s the first African American for Senate Minnesota has had and he’s a Republican. That’s a very good thing, and we’re going to try to work with him and see what we can do.”
After the Reformer reached out to White’s campaign requesting comment, he replied to this reporter directly on X , saying “You’re a cuck. We’re leaving the plantation… You and your weird liberal buddies read it and weep.”
White appears to have lifted the drinking fountain map from X user “Mpls Dad,” who jokingly posted it on Monday with the caption “Crime is absolutely out of control in this city.”
Precisely one minute later, he posted a reply revealing the map actually showed drinking fountains.
“I didn’t expect anyone to actually believe it was a crime map,” Mpls Dad, who wishes to remain pseudonymous, said via direct message. “I can’t believe SO MANY people fell for it, especially a GOP-endorsed US Senate candidate.”
But that map doesn’t support a message about “out of control” crime either: data from the city shows that shots fired are down by about 17% year-over-year, and by more than 33% when looking at the three-year average.
White has been active in the replies to his post, responding to mockery by calling users “ groomers ” and “ cucks .”
Since elevating Donald Trump in 2015 the national Republican Party has increasingly welcomed extreme figures who had previously been restricted to the margins of the party. Until recently Minnesota Republicans were more skeptical of the party’s hard-right turn , an acknowledgment of political reality in a state where no Republican has won statewide office in nearly 20 years.
But that string of losses has stirred up anger and resentment among the GOP base, leading to clashes between mainstream figures urging restraint and hard-right activists calling for war. The party’s continued embrace of a scandal-plagued candidate like White, one who has difficulty getting basic facts straight, suggests the activists are winning the battle for the heart and soul of Minnesota’s GOP.
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