ROCHESTER, Minn. — At a 2020 Trump rally in Rochester, Mike Lindell let slip that he coveted the governorship of Minnesota. Trump picked up on it and encouraged Lindell. But as Trump proceeded with his presidential campaign — and as Lindell cozied up to him at every opportunity — Trump turned a cold shoulder. Lindell nonetheless persisted and campaigned enthusiastically for Trump. Even when Trump lost, Lindell didn’t slow down. With even more fervor than ever, he embraced whacky conspiracy theories that voting machines had been rigged to cheat Trump out of the presidency. During all this, Lindell’s MyPillow business, on which he had built a rags-to-riches fortune, collapsed. Retailers cancelled their pillow orders left and right to distance themselves from Lindell’s growing zaniness. Bankruptcy followed. Lindell found himself living out of a pickup truck. His dream of holding elected office persisted, however. Last December he announced he would run for governor. And although Trump was silent, Lindell kept name-dropping about Trump’s six-year-old aside of encouragement. Then out of blue this week, Trump endorsed Lindell’s bid to be Minnesota’s governor. Even Lindell was surprised. In a giddy rambling interview with MPR:
“I didn’t ask him for his endorsement. I wanted to get it based on merit, based on what I could do. And I’m really excited that he endorsed me, and it’s based on merit, and what I’ve done with my campaign so far.”
Lindell is in a large Republican field in the party’s August primary. Businessman Kendall Qualls has the party’s endorsement from the GOP state convention in May. House Speaker Lisa Demuth was runner-up. Lindell is among lesser candidacies. He sees Trump’s support as a break-through:
“Now I can concentrate. I’m not taking the primary for granted, but I want to concentrate now on getting out what I can do for Minnesota. This will raise a lot of funding. Right now we’re approaching $3 million but this should up that so we can really hit the advertising to the marketing that I have planned to go against Amy Klobuchar.”
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is the Democratic shoo-in for the August primary.
Lindell saga. Rags to riches to rags. Now to governor? Trump called him the “Pillow Guy” in announcing his endorsement.
So many running
Republicans still with active candidacies the August primary:
> Leaders: Kendall Qualls, Lisa Demuth, Mike Lindell.
> Longshots: Loner Blue, Raul J. Estrada, John Krhin, Ross Nova.
Does Trump matter?
Trump has intruded into state Republican gubernatorial processes so far this year in 12 states. His endorsed candidates prevailed in primaries in 10 states and lost in two. Impossible to measure is whether his thumb on the scale made a difference