From 2008 to 2014, he was legislative counsel in the office of Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's Delegate to the United States House of Representatives.

[5][6] A month after her death,[5] he was critically injured when a semi-trailer truck side-swiped a passenger vehicle in which he was riding on New Hampshire Avenue in Montgomery County, Maryland.

[5] White attended the private Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., where he began playing lacrosse his senior year.

[15] White resigned from Norton's office in September 2013, switched his political affiliation to independent, and he filed as a candidate for an at-large seat on the Council of the District of Columbia, seeking to defeat one of the two incumbents (David Catania and Anita Bonds).

[24] On election day, however, voters chose Anita Bonds and Elissa Silverman to represent them in the at-large seats on the council.

[25][26] White later said his all-volunteer campaign staff lacked the time and expertise to run the get out the vote effort he needed.

[27] In February 2015, Karl Racine, the newly elected Attorney General of the District of Columbia, hired White as the first Director of the Office of Community Outreach.

[29] In October 2015, White supporters formed a committee to explore another run at an at-large seat on the council, challenging incumbent Vincent Orange.

[29] But in late November, the District of Columbia Board of Ethics and Government Accountability, the agency charged with overseeing enforcement of ethics regulations for the city's government employees, issued a ruling in which it said that the White exploratory committee could not fundraise so long as White remained a city employee.

[33] The editorial board of The Washington Post endorsed Orange's candidacy, praising him for his legislative skills and focus on economic development.

White's endorsement was particularly important, as he was running for office in Ward 8 east of the Anacostia River—areas where voters usually supported Orange overwhelmingly.

[36] Most of White's campaign funds were spent paying canvassers to visit homes and purchase a large number of yard signs, both of which were intended to raise his profile citywide.

[33] White also criticized David Garber, widely considered Orange's top challenger, for ignoring African American and poor neighborhoods.

[33] White said that if he were elected, he would improve oversight of the District of Columbia Department of Transportation and the District of Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, improve access to affordable housing, focus on zoning laws to bring redevelopment to dying retail corridors,[4] and support legislation to force employers to provide 12 weeks of paid sick leave.

[35] On June 14, 2016, Robert White defeated Vincent Orange and David Garber to win the Democratic Party nomination for the at-large seat on the city council.

[41] On September 15, 2016, D.C. Democratic State Committee officials voted 43-to-2 to appoint Robert White to Orange's at-large city council seat.

[49] In 2019, White was a deciding vote approving the no-bid, single source award of a $215 million, five-year contract to start the District's sports betting operations.

[52] In a whistleblower lawsuit, Security Assurance Management was charged with providing staff that worked under expired licenses, fell asleep on the job, and failed to detect test bombs.