MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell launches campaign for Minnesota governor

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell launched his campaign for Minnesota governor on Thursday, vowing to fix the state’s problems, run the government like a business and not back down from his debunked election fraud theories.

Lindell’s entrance into the race is likely to shake up the political landscape in Minnesota, as the close ally of President Donald Trump instantly became the most well-known Republican running for governor in a field of about a dozen candidates seeking to face Gov. Tim Walz. Lindell is also likely to be a top contender for the Minnesota GOP nomination due to his prominence in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

“I’ll be the most transparent governor this country’s ever seen,” Lindell proclaimed Thursday during a news conference at MyPillow’s warehouse in Shakopee.

In an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune on Wednesday, Lindell said he considers himself the front-runner in the GOP field for governor, even as he’s faced intense legal and financial turmoil that’s threatened the survival of his company.

Other GOP candidates for governor were already jockeying for Trump’s endorsement when Lindell entered the race. Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, 2022 gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen, state Rep. Kristin Robbins, Minneapolis attorney Chris Madel and businessman Kendall Qualls also are seeking the GOP nomination, among others.

Lindell said he told Trump in August he was considering running for Minnesota governor, but he declined to say how the president responded. He said he hopes to receive Trump’s endorsement but noted the president did not back him when he ran for chair of the Republican National Committee.

Lindell said Trump’s former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is giving him political advice. He said Giuliani now works for his media network, LindellTV.

His Thursday campaign announcement was livestreamed on LindellTV. Standing in front of the production line at MyPillow’s warehouse, Lindell participated in a live interview with Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist.

At one point during the interview, Lindell sprinted outside to show Bannon his red-white-and-blue campaign bus that features an image of him holding the U.S. Constitution in one hand and the American flag in the other.

“The best opponent that somebody could field against Walz is someone like you who’s so relentless on looking at operations and getting to the bottom of it,” Bannon told Lindell. “... He’s not gonna be able to hide behind a bunch of happy talk.”

Walz, who is widely seen as a political foe to Trump, is seeking a historic third consecutive four-year term after a failed run for vice president. The DFL governor is trying to make next year’s election a referendum on Trump as Republicans criticize his handling of major fraud cases in state welfare programs.

Walz’s campaign is already hammering Lindell for his ties to Trump, labeling him “a snake oil salesman caught up in multiple legal fights who wants to bring Trump extremism to Minnesota.”

Lindell and MyPillow have faced immense challenges in recent years after he staked his reputation on the baseless theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

A federal judge in Minnesota found that Lindell defamed voting machine company Smartmatic with his attacks on the 2020 presidential election results. Lindell is also on the hook for $2.3 million in damages, pending appeal, following a separate defamation verdict in a suit brought by a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems, another voting machine company. He said in testimony during that case that he is $10 million in debt.

Many big-box stores dropped the MyPillow in 2021 after Lindell became a national figure on election conspiracies. Since then, he’s auctioned off equipment and faced eviction notices over unpaid rent. In September, he put his Chaska headquarters up for sale, consolidating office space in Shakopee.

Asked Thursday if he has money to self-fund his campaign, Lindell said, “absolutely not.”

“I don’t have any money left,” he said. “It’s going to take people to get behind me, but I know they will.”

“This is not one side stealing from the other,” he said. “It’s the uniparty, deep state, globalists.”

But, Lindell added, “my whole campaign is not going to be about the [voting] machines.”

Lindell said he will emphasize his personal story, which he called “the American dream on steroids,” of going from being a crack addict to a self-made CEO. He wants to revitalize downtown Minneapolis, root out fraud in government programs, lower property taxes and eliminate “excessive fees and unfair regulations,” among other things.

He said he would “absolutely” try to change the state’s abortion laws if elected governor. Asked if that meant he would try to ban the procedure altogether, Lindell said, “I don’t know, I’m not there yet on that.”

“Would I like to? Yeah, absolutely. 100%,” he said.

In the coming months, Lindell said he plans to “be everywhere” as he travels across the state to talk with voters.

“The people that … traditionally maybe sit back in a midterm, I’m going to get them to vote,” he said.

Nathaniel Minor of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this report.