Election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell loses Minnesota GOP governor primary

Mike Lindell, a pillow magnate and prolific election denier who helped mainstream the conspiracy theory that compromised voting machines were used to steal the 2020 election, lost Minnesota’s Republican primary for governor Tuesday. 

Lindell, who founded the company MyPillow in 2004, frequently touted his close ties to President Donald Trump throughout his campaign. But he couldn’t leverage his personal relationship with the president enough to win over GOP voters in the North Star State. Instead, Lindell’s campaign was marred by his political baggage and legal debt, a muddled message and scandals — including potentially violating campaign finance laws by handing out free pillows in a July 4 public event. 

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Lindell became a prominent figure in the election denier movement for pushing the false claim that compromised voting machines flipped votes for Trump to Joe Biden. He also helped finance a widely panned audit of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 results that ultimately became the basis for the FBI’s probe into the county’s elections office earlier this year. 

Lindell spread his message far and wide — on Fox News and other prominent right-wing news outlets — before he was sued by two major election technology companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Last June, he was ordered to pay $2.3 million to a former Dominion employee for spreading his libelous claims. In 2025, a jury ordered Lindell to pay Smartmatic for defamation, which the gubernatorial candidate still refuses to do. 

Over the past six years, Lindell has also built a major right-wing media brand on the foundation of his election conspiracy theories. He launched LindellTV in 2021, which has since evolved into a full-fledged media platform that’s home to his podcast and hosts other prominent election deniers and far-right media personalities. He frequently appears on other election denier podcasts, where he’s said that he regularly meets with Trump to discuss anti-voting measures and election conspiracies. 

Since announcing his candidacy for Minnesota governor last year, Lindell has run a rocky campaign. In May, he lost the Minnesota GOP’s official endorsement during the party’s annual state convention. Despite an endorsement from Trump, Lindell drew the ire of MAGA last month when he proposed an immigration policy plan that would grant six months of amnesty for undocumented immigrants to obtain a work visa. After an intense backlash, he quickly reversed course. 

“I’m not for amnesty, I’ve never been for amnesty, and I never will be for amnesty,” Lindell told local media. “I have done more to fight the illegals than anyone.”

In the days leading up to the election, Lindell stepped down as CEO of MyPillow to focus on his campaign. 

“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,” he said. 

Now that he’s out of the running to be Minnesota’s next governor, Lindell is free to return to his pillow empire and to using his tremendous media platform to spread lies about U.S. elections.