DETROIT LAKES — U.S. Senate hopeful Royce White and congressional candidate Steve Boyd spoke to an audience of prospective voters during a town hall in Detroit Lakes on Tuesday, June 25.
The event, which was organized by the Caravan of Patriots, was held at the Detroit Lakes Holiday Inn and was a chance for the two Republican candidates to make their cases to voters ahead of the Aug. 13 primary election.
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White, an ex-NBA player from Minneapolis , is the GOP’s endorsed candidate running for Democratic Senator and former presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar's seat. Boyd, the event’s special guest, is a Republican running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach, a Republican, in Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District.
He addressed the audience first Tuesday night, outlining his platform and making the case to differentiate himself from Fischbach.
“Number one, I’m not a career politician, that’s a big difference,” Boyd said of the differences between him and Fischbach. “Number two, I understand the battle that we’re in. Number three, I understand that the solutions are not all going to come from government.”
Boyd, a small business owner who makes his home in rural Kensington, Minnesota, said the battle is not just political, but also spiritual. He’s particularly concerned about the “degradation” of the traditional family, secularism and the loss of personal freedoms.
“We’re going to have to take action …” Boyd said. “Any politicians that comes in here and tells you, ‘give me money, give me your vote, I’ll take care of your problems,’ should remind you that you should kick them down the road.”
As for policy, Boyd emphasized his anti-abortion stance, noting he’s “pro-life from the moment of conception” and that the “value of life” has been lost.
He also expressed concern regarding the national debt and border security.
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“Every year is the most important election ever, right?” Boyd asked the audience. “Well, I do believe this one actually is. Because we can’t sustain much longer on this current track.”
White, endorsed by delegates at Minnesota’s Republican convention in May, spoke extensively during his time in front of the crowd Tuesday. A significant amount of his speaking time focused on culture war issues, taking aim at transgender people, the Me Too movement, feminism and other hot-button cultural issues of the day.
“Now if you’re transgender, I don’t agree with your lifestyle,” White said. “I don’t agree with the way you think. You have some severe mental health issues.”
But it’s “not open season on the LGBT community,” he said.
“And I won’t take a back step from the LGBT community,” he said. “Oh, they hate me. And I like it.”
He also railed against international organizations such as the United Nations, World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund and NATO. Domestically, he focused his sights on the Federal Reserve, which he told the audience is the “source of your problems.”
Forever wars and the national debt were also on White’s agenda, as he expressed dismay at the culture he perceives the two have cultivated.
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“The American citizens buy that story,” White said. “That your government loves you. Your government wants to take care of you. Your government wants you to be prosperous. … No, they don’t. Your government wants to kill you. Your government works off a business model of death and debt. We have a death and debt society. Death and debt, that’s the culture.”
White described citizens’ trust in the government as “American cuckery,” and told the audience, “The reality is you’re a slave. Right now, today. “You’re a slave to debt. You’re a slave to wages. You’re a slave to the corporate community that thinks you’re beneath them.”
He outlined what he described as the “four heresies of the West,” which included the scientific method, democracy, computer technology and artificial intelligence.
“The heresy of democracy is that it assumes all majorities are made equal and righteous, right?” White said. “All majorities are not equal. All majorities are not righteous. That’s why we live in a constitutional republic, not a democracy.”
During his campaign, White said he’s taken notice of wolf predation, in particular, as an issue that affects Greater Minnesota.
Earlier this year, a group called Hunters for Hunters hosted a forum in Detroit Lakes, as well as several other cities, about the impact of wolves on livestock and hunting. Wolves in Minnesota are listed as a federally threatened species, meaning they can only be killed in defense of human life, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
“So even in that issue, you see a sort of anti-human sentiment that the animals and the environment and all these other things supersede the interest of the American people,” White said. “You’re supposed to let some wolf come and hunt your dog, let alone maybe your child.”
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White mentioned livestock after an audience member raised the issue of cattle.
No fatal wolf attacks on a human have ever been reported in Minnesota, according to the Department of Natural Resources. The first and only confirmed wolf attack on a human in Minnesota history was that of a 16-year-old in 2013.
White fielded questions from the audience following his allotted speaking time. Audience members oscillated between questions and praise for his campaign.
One audience member questioned the official story of the John F. Kennedy assassination, saying it was the biggest question of his lifetime.
White said that if he was elected, he would do his best to expose the truth. “But before they ever would let the JFK secrets out, I assume they’d probably kill me, too,” he said.
“And I have to say that all the boomers in this country still live with the trauma and fear of knowing that their government had a hand in killing their president,” White said, with some audience members affirming his sentiment. “And that fear keeps many, many people from organizing and protesting what they know is unconstitutional today.”
White also mentioned to the audience that the 2020 election was stolen.
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Audience members inquired about accusations of anti-semitism and owing more than $100,000 in child support payments. Some of the questions were posed in a tongue-in-cheek manner, while others were more serious.
“They want to make it about back child support,” White said. “They want to make it about FEC filings. They want to make it about whatever they can to keep this conversation from happening. They’re stealing from you. That’s it. It’s that simple.”
NBC News reported in May that White had fallen behind on child support payments several times between 2020 and 2023.
“I’m a loving father that loved my kids and I paid to try and support my kids,” he said. “But some bills are just too big, and some bills are unjust. That’s the truth.”
White largely brushed off the accusations of anti-semitism, which partially stem from posts he’s made on X, formerly Twitter, in the past.
A post of White’s from Oct. 17, 2022, reads: “Nobody has a general problem with Jews. God’s people! There is a group of Jewish elite, that tends to be secular in belief and and corrupt in political practice. They have rejected Judaism, which makes them Anti-Jews.”
“If you can’t question the relationship between us and Israel at all, if that makes you anti-Semitic, then I guess I am,” White said on Tuesday.
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White also addressed allegations of improper use of campaign funds from a failed 2022 U.S. House run in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, which U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar currently represents.
Several media outlets have reported that a federal campaign finance complaint was filed against White earlier this month by a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog, the Campaign Legal Center. The group’s complaint alleges that White illegally used $157,000 on personal items .
“And that’s why they try to bring up FEC violations before I actually get my feet on the ground there in Minneapolis,” White said. “Because they know something that some of you may not know: that if we get 10% to 15% in CD5 and CD4, they’ll never win another election in this state.”
It’s the same playbook. It’s so blatant and obvious. Nobody has a general problem with Jews. God’s people! There is a group of Jewish elite, that tends to be secular in belief and corrupt in political practice. They have rejected Judaism, which makes them Anti-Jews. #Godspeed pic.twitter.com/EsWdouxnv1
— Royce White 🇺🇸 (@Highway_30) October 17, 2022
Congressional District 4 is currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum. Both District 4 and 5 have long been Democratic strongholds.
White also took shots at his primary opponent Joe Fraser, a U.S. Navy veteran who served for 26 years, who White referred to pejoratively as a “neo-con.”
“Mr. 26 years military intelligence, quote unquote intelligence,” White said. “How intelligent were the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? I don’t know. Didn’t seem very intelligent to me.”
White said that Fraser’s interests lie with the military-industrial complex.
“And if you look across the country, all across the Republican Party, you will find these ex-military people who have one interest,” he said. “They can call it the national interest. There is no national interest. The interest is the military itself.”
Minnesota’s primary election is Aug. 13. If White succeeds against Fraser, he will square off against Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who was first elected to the Senate in 2006, during the Nov. 5 general election.
To register to vote, visit mnvotes.sos.mn.gov/VoterRegistration/index.
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