MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell jumps into Minnesota governor’s race
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump and a prominent conspiracy theorist, announced Thursday that he will run for governor of Minnesota.
Lindell became a key voice on the right after the 2020 presidential election, promoting unproven conspiracy theories about election fraud and spending millions of dollars to support Trump’s attempts to overturn the election. Earlier this year, a federal jury demanded Lindell pay $2.3 million in damages for defaming a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems, a voting equipment company at the heart of far-right election conspiracy theories.
He joins a crowded Republican primary, with Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, state Rep. Kristin Robbins and Minneapolis attorney Chris Madel vying for the GOP nomination.
Former state Sen. Scott Jensen, the Republican nominee for governor in 2022, is also seeking a rematch with now-Gov. Tim Walz. A Republican has not won a statewide race in Minnesota since 2006, when former Gov. Tim Pawlenty won a second term before launching a short-lived presidential bid in 2011.
In his campaign launch speech, Lindell repeatedly took aim at what he called “rampant fraud under Governor Walz,” alluding to a high-profile corruption scandal in the Minnesota government that has drawn repeated attacks from Trump and other Republicans in recent weeks. Walz has said that any individuals who committed fraud would be punished.
Lindell filed paperwork last week to launch an official gubernatorial campaign after months of teasing a possible entrance into the race.
In a statement Thursday, Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Izzi Levy called Lindell a “shady businessman” with a radical agenda.
“Far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell’s entrance into Minnesota’s GOP gubernatorial primary turbocharges what was already a crowded and chaotic race to curry favor with Donald Trump at the expense of the issues that matter most to Minnesotans,” Levy said.
Lindell previously considered running for the governorship in 2018 and 2022. He also ran for chair of the Republican National Committee in 2023 but lost to Trump-endorsed candidate Michael Whatley.
