Mike Lindell, MyPillow CEO and one of many loudest voices within the election-denial motion, is operating for governor of Minnesota, saying the bid Thursday from the ground of his manufacturing unit.
“I want you to know that I will stand for you as the next governor of Minnesota,” he stated. Lindell additionally vowed to tackle “rampant fraud under Gov. [Tim] Walz,” rising crime, and what he known as suffocating regulation.
Lindell’s entry provides yet one more contender to an already swollen GOP major, and it drops a nationally polarizing determine right into a state that leans blue—even because it hasn’t been proof against Trump-era politics.
Mike Lindell attends a marketing campaign rally for President Donald Trump in July 2024.
Lindell isn’t only a businessman with sturdy views, however he was additionally some of the seen faces of the trouble to overturn the 2020 election. He bankrolled bus excursions and right-wing rallies, amplified conspiracy theories about Dominion and Smartmatic voting tech corporations, and poured cash into lawsuits that went nowhere. He even produced a documentary promising to settle the election as soon as and for all, then hosted a three-day “Cyber Symposium” meant to unveil the supposed proof of fraud, which … didn’t fairly go as deliberate.
Actually, none of it panned out. However what did stick was the debt. Dominion’s lawsuit alone pushed him into deep monetary bother.
Lindell additionally backed Tina Peters, the Colorado clerk who was later convicted of tampering with voting machines. And he infamously carried notes into the White Home, urging President Donald Trump to think about declaring martial legislation to cease Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Via all of it, Lindell remained a fixture in Trump’s orbit. This yr on the Conservative Political Motion Convention, Trump stopped mid-speech to reward him.
“That man suffered,” the president stated, blaming “FBI thugs” for focusing on Lindell. “And he never changed his mind. He said that the election of 2020 was rigged.”
After a beat, he laughed: “It’s okay to say it, Mike.”
Nonetheless, even Trump has limits. He declined to endorse Lindell’s 2023 bid for Republican Nationwide Committee chair, and Lindell ended up with solely a handful of votes.
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Lindell argues that he’s been the sufferer of “lawfare” and insists he’s endured one of many largest assaults on an organization and particular person in trendy media.
“Not only have I built businesses, you look at problem solution,” he instructed The Related Press. “I was able to make it through the biggest attack on a company, and a person, probably other than Donald Trump … lawfare and everything.”
His authorized tangle continues. Dominion, now rebranded as Liberty Vote, instructed a courtroom final month that discovery is full and the defamation case is prepared for trial.
In the meantime, Rudy Giuliani—who has his personal defamation rulings to cope with—is advising the marketing campaign.
The broader political panorama isn’t easy both. Minnesota hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2006. A 3rd time period for Democrat Tim Walz could be unprecedented, however Walz returns dwelling after dropping on a nationwide ticket and remains to be going through questions over a sprawling fraud scandal that exploited the state’s social companies.
Democrats appear virtually delighted by Lindell’s entry, arguing that he’d be far too excessive for a general-election viewers.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz expresses frustration with President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans over the federal government shutdown on Oct. 2.
The Democratic Governors Affiliation known as the unfolding major “a nightmare scenario for Minnesota Republicans,” saying that whoever emerges will wrestle to match Walz’s file. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Occasion painted Lindell as “conspiratorial, extremist, and weird,” an avatar of what they are saying at the moment’s GOP has turn into.
The Republican subject itself is crowded and fractured. Minnesota Home Speaker Lisa Demuth, former state Sen. Scott Jensen, state Rep. Kristin Robbins, and several other others are already jockeying for the place.
In a race so tied to the whims of 1 man, a Trump endorsement might be decisive. And Lindell says that he’s instructed Trump he’s contemplating operating however doesn’t know whether or not the previous president will again him.
Democrats, unsurprisingly, are framing the race as a contest over loyalty to Trump.
“Far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell’s entrance … turbocharges what was already a crowded and chaotic race to curry favor with Donald Trump,” the DGA stated, calling Lindell “a shady businessman” who helps abortion bans, backs GOP well being care cuts, and as soon as described 9/11 as a “blessing in disguise.”
And whereas Lindell denies pushing false election claims to spice up pillow gross sales, a courtroom will resolve that. Voters will resolve all the pieces else.
For now, he’s simply the newest hard-right determine making an attempt to show MAGA movie star into public workplace—and prone to discover out, as soon as once more, that nationwide fame doesn’t simply translate into statewide votes.
