Mike Lindell running for Minnesota governor

Mike Lindell, the fervent supporter of President Donald Trump known to TV viewers as the “MyPillow Guy,” officially entered the race for Minnesota governor Thursday in hopes of winning the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.

The formal word came during a friendly back-and-forth with conservative provocateur Steve Bannon aired on the online Lindell TV network.

“I'm still standing. MyPillow is still standing, and now I want you to know that I will stand for you as next governor of the state of Minnesota,” Lindell told Bannon.

Lindell blasted Walz’s record on fraud, said he would work to fight crime and make Minnesota more business friendly. Lindell said he’s got a track record of solving problems in the business sector and would do the same for government.

The fraud issue has particularly dogged Walz, who announced in September that he’s seeking a third term in the 2026 election.

Almost immediately, Walz fired off a fundraising appeal that described Lindell as the GOP frontrunner.

“He’s a snake oil salesman caught up in multiple legal fights who wants to bring Trump extremism to Minnesota,” the Walz campaign message said in part. Walz has been raising money for awhile off the possibility of a Lindell run and used it to tar the entire GOP field of 13 as extreme.

A TV pitchman and election denier

Lindell, 64, founded his pillow company in Minnesota in 2009 and became its public face through infomercials that became ubiquitous on late-night television. But he and his company faced a string of legal and financial setbacks after he became a leading amplifier of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. He said he has overcome them.

“Not only have I built businesses, you look at problem solution,” Lindell said in his trademark rapid-fire style. “I was able to make it through the biggest attack on a company, and a person, probably other than Donald Trump, in the history of our media ... lawfare and everything.”

While no Republican has won statewide office in Minnesota since 2006, the state's voters have a history of making unconventional choices. They shocked the world by electing former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura as governor in 1998. And they picked a veteran TV pitchman in 1978 when they elected home improvement company owner Rudy Boschwitz as a U.S. senator.

Lindell has frequently talked about how he overcame a crack cocaine addiction with a religious conversion in 2009 as MyPillow was getting going. His life took another turn in 2016 when he met the future president during Trump's first campaign. He served as a warm-up speaker at dozens of Trump rallies and co-chaired Trump's campaign in Minnesota.

Trump's endorsement could be the key to which of several candidates wins the GOP nomination to challenge Walz. But Lindell said he doesn't know what Trump will do, even though they're friends, and said his campaign isn't contingent on the president's support.

His Lindell TV streaming platform was in the news in November when it became one of several conservative news outlets that became credentialed to cover the Pentagon after agreeing to a restrictive new press policy rejected by virtually all legacy media organizations.

Lindell has weathered a series of storms

Lindell's outspoken support for Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen triggered a backlash as major retailers discontinued MyPillow products. By his own admission, revenue slumped and lines of credit dried up, costing him millions. Several vendors sued MyPillow over billing disputes. Fox News stopped running his commercials. Lawyers quit on him.

Lindell has been sued twice for defamation over his claims that voting machines were manipulated to deprive Trump of a victory.

A federal judge in Minnesota ruled in September that Lindell defamed Smartmatic with 51 false statements. But the judge deferred the question of whether Lindell acted with the “actual malice” that Smartmatic must prove to collect. Smartmatic says it's seeking “nine-figure damages.”

A Colorado jury in June found that Lindell defamed a former Dominion Voting Systems executive by calling him a traitor, and awarded $2.3 million in damages.

But Lindell won a victory in July when a federal appeals court overturned a judge's decision that affirmed a $5 million arbitration award to a software engineer who disputed data that Lindell claimed proved Chinese interference in the 2020 election. The engineer had accepted Lindell's “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge,” which he launched as part of his 2021 “Cyber Symposium” in South Dakota, where he promised to expose election fraud.

The campaign ahead

Lindell said his crusade against electronic voting machines will just be part of his platform. While Minnesota uses paper ballots, it also uses electronic tabulators to count them. Lindell wants them hand-counted, even though many election officials say machine counting is more accurate.

Lindell has a big platform on the right. He’s not shy about pushing debunked conspiracy theories that resonate with many in the party base. Almost certainly, he’ll say things in this campaign that others in the Republican field won’t or can’t and they might have no choice but to respond.

DFL Party Chair Richard Carlbom labeled Lindell a “Trump Fanboy” in a statement criticizing the new candidate.

“And Lindell’s not the only one,” Carlbom said. “The entire Republican field is busy bending the knee to Donald Trump and desperately competing for his attention instead of focusing on what really matters.”

Some Republicans in the race include Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring; Dr. Scott Jensen, a former state senator from Chaska who was the party's 2022 candidate; state Rep. Kristin Robbins, of Maple Grove; defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor Chris Madel; and former executive Kendall Qualls.

“These guys haven’t lived what I live,” Lindell told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of his official announcement.

Lindell wouldn't commit to abiding by the Minnesota GOP endorsement and forgoing the primary if he loses it, expressing confidence that he'll win.

There is a Republican gathering this weekend of a subset of state party leaders. There’s a straw poll there that will offer a glimpse of who has traction.

Precinct caucuses are held in early February. That’s the first step toward a May state convention where a candidate endorsement is the top order of business.

Usually for Republicans, the endorsement is crucial and determines the nominee. But this time, more candidates than usual saying they’ve got their eyes on an August primary instead and won’t hesitate to challenge the endorsed candidate for the nomination.

Lindell also said he'll rely on his supporters to finance his campaign because his own finances are drained. “I don’t have the money,” he acknowledged.

But he added that ever since word got out last week that he had filed the paperwork to run, “I’ve had thousands upon thousands of people text and call, saying from all around the country ... ‘Hey, I’ll donate.’”