MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said he’s the most qualified person to “save” Minnesota and filed paperwork Wednesday to run as a Republican for governor in 2026.
The businessman and staunch supporter of President Trump plans to make a formal announcement at his Minnesota pillow factory on Dec. 11.
“I’m 98%, but I can’t say 100%,” Lindell told The Post about whether he’ll announce that he’s running for governor, noting that his campaign manager insisted that he file the paperwork despite not being completely certain.
Lindell would face a crowded GOP primary, with Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins and Scott Jensen, a former challenger who lost to sitting Democratic Gov. Tim Walz in 2022.
Walz is running for reelection in 2026, seeking a third term in office after losing as Kamala Harris’s White House running mate in 2024.
“I haven’t even looked at all that,” he said of his potential primary opponents.
“If I run, it’s going to be because I want to save my state, and I believe I’d be the best qualified of anyone to do it.”
Lindell, who built MyPillow from the ground up into a multi-million dollar company after recovering from an addiction to crack cocaine and later launched his own television network, described the way Walz has been running the state as “shameful.”
“I’ve lived in Minnesota my whole life, born and raised there, and what’s going on with the fraud and with our governor – it’s shameful,” he said.
The North Star State has been plagued by a series of massive welfare fraud scandals in recent years, which have caught the attention of the Trump administration and congressional leaders.
The Treasury Department and House Oversight Committee have both launched investigations into Walz’s alleged failure to safeguard taxpayer money.
“It’s a shame,” Lindell said of the rampant fraud in his home state, “that money was all earmarked for people that really needed help. It’s disgusting.”
“I watched Minnesota go down, down, down, under horrible leadership, and it’s one of those things, if nobody else can get it done, do it yourself,” he said of why he’s considering taking on Walz. “I don’t trust anyone else to get this done.”
Lindell said he expects to “pull more people that are traditional Democrats” than Republicans, because of his previous work in Minneapolis on addiction treatment — “before all this political stuff.”
“I’ve lived the American dream, going from an addict and in the streets to getting freed of all the addictions by coming to Jesus Christ … then to be able to build up a massive company, and then to be able to withstand [being] the most attacked company in history,” he said of qualifications, noting that the FBI seized his phone at a Hardee’s drive-thru in 2022 as part the Biden Justice Department’s sweeping Arctic Frost probe.
Lindell was one of several Trump allies who boosted claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
“I’m used to the attacks. Do I think they’ll bring it to another level? I don’t know if there’s any higher level,” he said of any fears about running for governor.
Lindell said he hasn’t spoken to Trump about his potential campaign or a possible endorsement.
The Democratic Governors Association slammed Lindell’s potential gubernatorial bid.
“Mike Lindell is the latest extreme, out of touch candidate to jump into what is becoming a more chaotic and dangerous race to the far-right by the day — and his entrance into the race is a bitter pill-ow for Minnesota Republicans to swallow,” DGA spokesperson Izzi Levy said in a statement.
“Lindell is a sleazy businessman who has praised Republicans’ health care cuts for hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans — and that’s on top of his long record of pushing to ban abortion, bankrolling efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and even saying 9/11 was ‘a blessing in disguise,’” Levy added. “Minnesotans can rest easy that we’re going to put to bed any dreams Lindell has of bringing his extreme agenda to the governor’s office.”
