SHAKOPEE, Minn. (AP) — Mike Lindell, the fervent supporter of President Donald Trump recognized to TV viewers because the “MyPillow Guy,” formally entered the race for Minnesota governor Thursday in hopes of profitable the Republican nomination to problem Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.
“I’ll leave no town unturned in Minnesota,” Lindell informed The Related Press in an interview forward of a information convention set for Thursday.
He stated he has a report of fixing issues and private experiences that may assist companies and struggle dependancy and homelessness in addition to fraud in authorities applications. The fraud challenge has notably dogged Walz, who introduced in September that he’s looking for a 3rd time period within the 2026 election.
A TV pitchman and election denier
Lindell, 64, based his pillow firm in Minnesota in 2009 and have become its public face via infomercials that turned ubiquitous on late-night tv. However he and his firm confronted a string of authorized and monetary setbacks after he turned a number one amplifier of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. He stated he has overcome them.
“Not only have I built businesses, you look at problem solution,” Lindell stated in his trademark rapid-fire model. “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.”
Whereas no Republican has gained statewide workplace in Minnesota since 2006, the state’s voters have a historical past of constructing unconventional selections. They shocked the world by electing former skilled wrestler Jesse Ventura as governor in 1998. And so they picked a veteran TV pitchman in 1978 once they elected residence enchancment firm proprietor Rudy Boschwitz as a U.S. senator.
Lindell has incessantly talked about how he overcame a crack cocaine dependancy with a spiritual conversion in 2009 as MyPillow was getting going. His life took one other flip in 2016 when he met the long run president throughout Trump’s first marketing campaign. He served as a warm-up speaker at dozens of Trump rallies and co-chaired Trump’s marketing campaign in Minnesota.
Trump’s endorsement could possibly be the important thing to which of a number of candidates wins the GOP nomination to problem Walz. However Lindell stated he doesn’t know what Trump will do, regardless that they’re associates, and stated his marketing campaign isn’t contingent on the president’s assist.
His Lindell TV streaming platform was within the information in November when it turned one in every of a number of conservative information retailers that turned credentialed to cowl the Pentagon after agreeing to a restrictive new press coverage rejected by nearly all legacy media organizations.
Lindell has weathered a collection of storms
Lindell’s outspoken assist for Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen triggered a backlash as main retailers discontinued MyPillow merchandise. By his personal admission, income slumped and contours of credit score dried up, costing him tens of millions. A number of distributors sued MyPillow over billing disputes. Fox Information stopped working his commercials. Legal professionals give up on him.
Lindell has been sued twice for defamation over his claims that voting machines have been manipulated to deprive Trump of a victory.
A federal choose in Minnesota dominated in September that Lindell defamed Smartmatic with 51 false statements. However the choose deferred the query of whether or not Lindell acted with the “actual malice” that Smartmatic should show to gather. Smartmatic says it’s looking for “nine-figure damages.”
A Colorado jury in June discovered that Lindell defamed a former Dominion Voting Methods government by calling him a traitor, and awarded $2.3 million in damages.
However Lindell gained a victory in July when a federal appeals court docket overturned a choose’s choice that affirmed a $5 million arbitration award to a software program engineer who disputed information that Lindell claimed proved Chinese language interference within the 2020 election. The engineer had accepted Lindell’s “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge,” which he launched as a part of his 2021 “Cyber Symposium” in South Dakota, the place he promised to show election fraud.
The marketing campaign forward
Lindell stated his campaign in opposition to digital voting machines will simply be a part of his platform. Whereas Minnesota makes use of paper ballots, it additionally makes use of digital tabulators to rely them. Lindell needs them hand-counted, regardless that many election officers say machine counting is extra correct.
Some Republicans within the race embody Minnesota Home Speaker Lisa Demuth, of Chilly Spring; Dr. Scott Jensen, a former state senator from Chaska who was the social gathering’s 2022 candidate; state Rep. Kristin Robbins, of Maple Grove; protection lawyer and former federal prosecutor Chris Madel; and former government Kendall Qualls.
“These guys haven’t lived what I live,” Lindell stated.
Lindell wouldn’t decide to abiding by the Minnesota GOP endorsement and forgoing the first if he loses it, expressing confidence that he’ll win. He additionally stated he’ll depend on his supporters to finance his marketing campaign as a result of his personal funds are drained. “I don’t have the money,” he acknowledged.
However he added that ever since phrase received out final 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.’”
