MyPillow founder Mike Lindell lost the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial primary by more than 15 points Tuesday night, a clear rebuke from GOP voters who sided with state House Speaker Lisa Demuth over Trump's hand-picked candidate.
Demuth took 45% of the vote to Lindell's 32%, with the Associated Press calling the race at 11:26 p.m. The result sets up a general election matchup against Senator Amy Klobuchar for the right to replace outgoing Governor Tim Walz, a contest prediction markets already price at 94% in Democrats' favor.
The outcome was a direct repudiation of Trump's July endorsement of Lindell, which the Minnesota Republican Party itself had publicly opposed. State GOP Chairman Alex Plechash had warned weeks earlier that the party needed a different kind of candidate.
Trump endorsed Lindell on July 15 via Truth Social, calling him the best pick to replace Walz and praising his fight for what Trump called "free and fair Elections." On election morning, Trump posted again, urging voters to turn out:
"Mike Lindell deserves a BIG WIN IN MINNESOTA today. Go out, NOW, and VOTE for Mike Lindell for Governor."
But the state party had already made its position clear. The Minnesota GOP endorsed healthcare executive and Army veteran Kendall Qualls at its convention, not Lindell. And Plechash, the state chairman, issued a pointed statement on July 15, the same day as Trump's endorsement, citing Lindell's financial problems and what he called "significant electability concerns."
The Washington Examiner reported a fuller version of Plechash's remarks:
"These are serious times, and they demand serious, disciplined leadership. Minnesota needs a governor who can unite Republicans, earn the support of independent voters, and defeat Amy Klobuchar."
That language amounted to an unusually blunt public break between a state party chairman and a sitting president's endorsement. Plechash did not name Lindell directly in the quote, but the timing and context left no ambiguity about the target.
Lindell entered the race with national name recognition, backing from CPAC, and support from United Republicans, a national grassroots group. He campaigned on election integrity, tax cuts, school choice, parental rights, crime, illegal immigration, energy production, and pro-life positions, a platform that checked every conservative box on paper.
But he also carried liabilities that Minnesota voters evidently weighed heavily. Voting-technology companies had filed lawsuits accusing him of spreading false and damaging claims about their businesses. His personal finances were under strain. And his history, years of cocaine and crack addiction and gambling, which Lindell himself has discussed publicly, saying he overcame addiction in 2009 after turning to Christianity, gave opponents material to question his readiness for a grueling general election against a well-funded incumbent senator.
Demuth, by contrast, ran as the practical choice. The New York Post noted she is the first Black lawmaker and first Republican woman to serve as Minnesota House Speaker. She consolidated local support in the closing days of the campaign, and prediction odds shifted sharply in her favor during the final week.
After her victory, Demuth struck a forward-looking tone:
"There is hope for Minnesota, for the change that is so desperately needed."
She also pointed to the issue that may define the general election, the massive fraud scandal that engulfed state government under Walz's watch. As Fox News reported, Walz abandoned his reelection bid amid revelations that up to $9 billion in taxpayer money was stolen through social services scams, some linked to the Al Shabaab terror group.
Demuth made the fraud scandal central to her pitch:
"No longer will our government be fixated on shoveling out taxpayer dollars first and asking questions later. We will transform Minnesota's state government into a fiscal and moral steward of our tax dollars."
Even with Demuth as the nominee, Republicans face steep odds. No Republican has won a statewide election in Minnesota since 2006, a streak of 28 consecutive losses. Klobuchar, a two-term senator and former presidential candidate, won the Democratic primary easily and enters the general election as a heavy favorite.
Klobuchar signaled she plans to run on the fraud issue as well, framing it as a governance failure she would fix:
"Fraud against the state is fraud against Minnesota taxpayers. As Governor, I'll stop the fraud before it starts, update our technology to track state contracts, and send the criminals who steal your money to jail."
That both candidates now claim the anti-fraud mantle tells you how politically toxic the scandal has become. Walz's departure turned what would have been a routine reelection into an open seat, and gave Republicans their best shot at breaking the losing streak in two decades.
Minnesota was not the only state where a Trump-endorsed candidate fell short in a gubernatorial primary. In Iowa, U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra lost to businessman Zach Lahn. In Georgia, Trump-backed Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones lost a gubernatorial runoff to businessman Rick Jackson. And in Tennessee, U.S. Representative Andy Ogles was defeated by former Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher.
Taken together, the results suggest that Republican primary voters in governor's races are weighing local viability and governing credentials at least as heavily as a presidential endorsement. In each case, the winner was either a state-level officeholder or a businessman with local roots, not a nationally branded figure parachuting in with a White House seal of approval.
Polling data reinforced the broader dynamic. A late-July Quinnipiac survey found 76% of Republicans approved of Trump's job performance, down from 85% one month earlier. An AP-NORC poll showed Republican approval of Trump's handling of the economy dropped from 74% to 62% in the same period. And a June PRRI poll found favorability among less-committed Republicans fell from 70% to 63%, while Republican-leaning independents dropped from 65% to 48%.
None of those numbers signal a collapse. But they do show softening at the margins, precisely the margins where a candidate like Lindell needed every available vote.
Demuth enters the general election with the advantage of having won without the establishment endorsement and without Trump's backing, a combination that may give her more room to run an independent campaign tailored to Minnesota's electorate. The state GOP endorsed Qualls, not Demuth, at the convention. She won anyway, on the strength of her legislative record and late-breaking local support.
Whether that independence translates into competitiveness against Klobuchar is another question. Minnesota's 28-race Republican losing streak is not a fluke, it reflects a state electorate that has trended blue at the statewide level for nearly two decades. The fraud scandal gives Republicans a real opening, but closing a gap that wide requires a candidate who can hold the base and pull independents at the same time.
Lindell's defeat may sting for those who admired his personal comeback story and his willingness to spend his own fortune on causes he believed in. But Republican voters in Minnesota made a practical calculation: they chose the candidate they thought could win in November, not the one with the loudest national megaphone.
In the end, the voters closest to the race decided that electability mattered more than loyalty, and that is a principle conservatives usually defend.
