Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth won the Republican nomination for governor without President Donald Trump's endorsement, beating MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell by roughly 45,000 votes and 11 percentage points in Tuesday's primary. The Cold Spring Republican now heads into a historic general election matchup against Democratic-Farmer-Labor nominee Sen. Amy Klobuchar, with control of a governor's office Republicans haven't won in two decades on the line.
Official results from the Minnesota Secretary of State show Demuth and running mate Ryan Wilson took 179,683 votes, or 43.44%, compared to 134,282 votes, or 32.47%, for Lindell and running mate Phillip Parrish. State party-endorsed candidate Kendall Qualls finished third with 88,413 votes, or 21.38%. As KSTP reported, Lindell had not conceded the race as of the network's report, and said he would announce something on Monday or Tuesday.
Trump endorsed Lindell for governor on July 15, bypassing both Qualls, who had the state party's backing, and Demuth, who went on to win, according to Time. Demuth had lost the official state GOP endorsement to Qualls at the party's May 30 convention, after Republican Party of Minnesota leadership released candidates from their endorsement pledges when fifth-round convention voting broke down, per CBS News. She pressed on to the primary anyway.
A Primary Upset Two Layers Deep
Demuth's win is notable not just because she lacked Trump's backing, but because she overcame both the president's chosen candidate and her own party's convention pick in the same race. Days before the primary, state Republican leadership had publicly raised questions about Lindell's eligibility under Minnesota's one-year residency requirement, after records showed he had lived in Texas into 2025, Hoodline previously reported in its piece on Lindell's residency questions. Demuth formed her ticket with running mate Ryan Wilson, an attorney and health technology executive who previously ran for state auditor in 2022, back in November 2025, according to MPR News.
Speaking to KSTP, Demuth said Minnesota voters are focused on changing state leadership after years of fraud scandals, and that fraud comes up in every conversation in every corner of the state. That framing lines up with the federal case against Feeding Our Future, a $250 million pandemic-era welfare fraud scheme in which 62 of 80 indicted defendants had pleaded guilty and leader Aimee Bock received a federal prison sentence by early 2026, according to background compiled on the case.
Breaking With Trump on Tariffs
Demuth told KSTP she is starting to see tariffs differently as time goes on, adding that tariffs serve a purpose but it may be time to do something different. She said tariffs are putting pressure on Minnesota farmers and others in agriculture, and that she wants farmers to get fair prices while having the resources they need. Demuth also told the outlet she disagrees with rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state.
Democrats have seized on the tension, claiming Demuth won't identify any issue where she disagrees with Trump's policies, and signaling they will try to portray her as a potential rubber stamp for the president if she's elected, per the same KSTP report. Demuth pushed back on that characterization in her interview, pointing to her position on tariffs as one area of daylight. She said she will decide over time whether to seek Trump's endorsement for the general election.
A Historic Matchup Against Klobuchar
Demuth's opponent will be four-term U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who won the DFL primary with nearly 90% of the vote — 615,040 votes — after two-term Gov. Tim Walz unexpectedly announced in January that he would not seek re-election, according to Axios. The matchup marks the first time in Minnesota history that both major parties have nominated women for governor, according to the Minnesota Reformer.
Demuth faces a steep historical climb: no Republican has won Minnesota's governorship since Tim Pawlenty was re-elected in 2006, a 20-year drought for state Republicans in statewide races, according to Fox 9. Demuth's tenure as House Speaker has not been without personal risk — Washington County prosecutors filed felony threat charges in March against a Hugo woman accused of leaving 42 voicemail messages threatening Demuth and another lawmaker between January and February, as Hoodline reported in its story on the Hugo woman's threat charges. Demuth's full interview is set to air on At Issue with Tom Hauser at 10 a.m. Sunday, per KSTP, whose reporting anchors much of this account.
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