Royce White campaign claims to reimburse ‘non-authorized’ charges on strip club, retail, water parks

Royce White, the Minnesota Republican Party’s endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate, claims in campaign finance reports to have personally reimbursed nearly $13,000 of “non-authorized” expenses made during a 2022 run for Congress, including $1,200 to a strip club in Miami and more than $1,000 spent at indoor water parks.

Those reimbursements are a fraction of what White’s campaign spent on unexplained purchases, wire transfers and checks throughout 2022, even after he lost in a Republican primary election to challenge Ilhan Omar in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District.

He’s the subject of an FEC complaint for those expenditures, which campaign finance experts have described as possibly criminal. Federal law does not allow candidates to use campaign funds for personal use.

White’s Senate campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the reimbursements and whether he personally covered the costs.

White’s 2022 campaign submitted a series of amendments to past campaign finance reports over the weekend, labeling more than three dozen expenditures as “non-authorized” expenses and claiming they were personally reimbursed by the candidate.

That includes thousands spent at retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, H&M, Sally Beauty, Lululemon and Nike. He also amended reports for money spent at AMC Theaters, several expenses at Valvoline Oil and trips to fitness centers.

The amended reports include an alleged $1,200 reimbursement to the Gold Rush Cabaret strip club in Miami, which White told the Star Tribune in May was “probably somebody just using the wrong card in their wallet.”

The nonprofit Campaign Legal Center filed a 27-page complaint with the FEC in May, alleging White illegally used $157,000 from his 2022 congressional campaign for personal items. The FEC does not comment on pending investigations.

Brett Kappel, a Washington-based attorney and national expert on campaign finance law, said it appears White is trying to reimburse some of the more questionable expenses on his 2022 report, but it’s not likely to “help much” with the FEC complaint against him.

“The FEC General Counsel’s Office doesn’t give you much credit for taking corrective action two years after the fact and only after a complaint has been filed,” Kappel said.

Spending the FEC deems “automatic personal use” includes clothing and entertainment, though there are some exceptions if the clothing and entertainment are for official campaign use.

A number of White’s unexplained expenditures came after he lost the primary election, though he told the Star Tribune in May his expenses were for legitimate campaign work. White said at the time that people involved with his past and current race would “lend their accounting services to reconcile that campaign.”

In May, White won the Republican Party of Minnesota’s endorsement to run against Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar. White was endorsed before reporting surfaced on his previous campaign’s expenditures. He’s facing a primary challenge by Joe Fraser, a Republican businessman and former naval officer.

White, once a professional basketball player and Black Lives Matter protester, gained popularity in conservative circles as a regular guest on ex-Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s shows.

His 2024 U.S. Senate campaign also filed its July quarterly report on Monday, reporting raising nearly $75,000 between April and the end of June with roughly $47,636 in the bank to spend. Fraser’s campaign reported raising $17,445 during the same time period with $17,406 on hand.

White’s campaign reported spending that money on things such as credit card processing fees, texting and printing costs.

The FEC complaint against White in May also alleges there is “ample indication” that White’s U.S. Senate campaign “has incurred other expenses and made disbursements that it has simply not disclosed.”