Mike Lindell announced he is stepping down as CEO of MyPillow, the company he founded more than two decades ago, to devote himself full-time to his Republican campaign for governor of Minnesota, a race already marked by a Trump endorsement, a residency dispute, and a crowded primary field.
Lindell made the announcement Tuesday, saying he would hand the chief executive role to James Furlong, a longtime company director who served in leadership at MyPillow from 2004 to 2019. Lindell also reduced his ownership stake to a minority position, though the company did not disclose the exact percentage. He will remain on the board of directors.
The move puts distance between Lindell and the pillow empire he built from scratch in 2004, and it signals how seriously he is treating a gubernatorial bid that has drawn both national attention and intra-party friction. President Trump endorsed Lindell last month, and a SurveyUSA/KSTP poll around that time showed Lindell as the leading Republican candidate in the field. Early voting is already underway for the Aug. 11 primary.
Lindell cast his departure from MyPillow's corner office as a sacrifice, not a business decision. CBS News Minnesota reported his full statement:
"After 22 years of leading MyPillow, I know the company is ready for its next chapter and I know Minnesota cannot wait."
He went further in a second statement released alongside the announcement:
"This decision is not about walking away. It is about stepping forward to serve. I am putting Minnesota above myself, my title, and my business interests so I can give this campaign and the people of our state my full time, energy, and attention."
That language, "putting Minnesota above myself", is plainly aimed at voters who might wonder whether a CEO with a national media profile can focus on state-level governance. By cutting his ownership stake and handing daily operations to Furlong, Lindell is trying to answer the question before opponents can weaponize it.
Lindell is not the only Republican chasing the nomination. Kendall Qualls earned the state party's endorsement, and Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth is also running. The three-way contest has produced sharp elbows even before the primary.
The Republican Party of Minnesota asked Secretary of State Steve Simon to clarify constitutional residency rules for gubernatorial candidates, a request widely understood as targeting Lindell's domicile status. The party has not publicly detailed which specific residency provisions it believes Lindell may not satisfy, and Simon's response, if any, has not been disclosed.
Lindell did not take the challenge quietly. Speaking to WCCO, he dismissed the residency question as a political maneuver:
"It's a lie. It's a hit job. He wants his darling, Lisa Demuth. That's who he wants, who they had handpicked by Alex."
Lindell did not identify who "Alex" is, and the source of the reference remains unclear. But the accusation itself, that state party figures are engineering the field in Demuth's favor, reflects a candidate willing to run against his own party's apparatus if necessary.
The residency dispute is not Lindell's only legal headache. He has been accused of violating campaign laws by giving away pillows promoting his candidacy at a July Fourth parade. The complaint has been filed, but its current status, whether it has been investigated, dismissed, or remains pending, is not public.
Taken together, the residency challenge and the campaign-law accusation create a pattern of procedural pressure on a candidate who entered the race with high name recognition and a presidential endorsement but without the state party's blessing. Qualls holds that endorsement. Demuth holds the speakership. Lindell holds the Trump card.
Whoever wins the Aug. 11 Republican primary will almost certainly face Sen. Amy Klobuchar, described as the presumptive favorite for the Democratic candidacy. Minnesota has not elected a Republican governor since Tim Pawlenty won re-election in 2006, and flipping the seat would require a nominee who can unite a fractured GOP base while competing in a state that leans left in statewide races.
Lindell's decision to shed his CEO title and reduce his financial stake in MyPillow is a bet that voters will reward commitment over credentials. Furlong, his successor, brings institutional knowledge, fifteen years inside the company, but steps into the role without a public profile of his own.
Lindell built a business from nothing and now says he wants to do the same for Minnesota. Whether Republican primary voters trust the man more than the party's preferred alternatives is a question the Aug. 11 ballot will settle, and the answer will say as much about the state of the GOP as it does about any single candidate.
