Trump has spent months casting Minnesota as a state overrun by fraud, and he gave his endorsement to the candidate who built a career on fraud claims of his own.
Minnesota Republicans will choose a nominee for governor on Aug. 11. Seven Republicans are on the primary ballot, but polling numbers show Mike Lindell, Lisa Demuth, and Kendall Qualls as the leading candidates.
Early voting has been open since June, and for months the candidates have competed for Trump’s endorsement. On July 15, Trump handed his endorsement to Lindell, calling him one of the country’s hardest-working patriots and citing his work on what Trump calls “election integrity.”
The state party had already endorsed someone else. GOP chair Alex Plechash put out a statement within hours pointing to Lindell’s financial baggage, tens of thousands in delinquent property taxes, and what he described as serious electability concerns.
While state Republicans fight over Trump’s favor, Minnesota is absorbing the costs of his agenda.
About 1.2 million Minnesotans get health coverage through Medical Assistance, the state’s Medicaid program, and the federal government is squeezing it from both ends. The reconciliation law Trump signed in 2025 cut hundreds of billions from Medicaid and food assistance nationally to pay for a tax package weighted toward the wealthiest households. State analysts project the law will eventually strip coverage from as many as 140,000 Minnesotans. On top of that, federal regulators have moved to withhold or defer roughly $3.1 billion from the state’s Medicaid program over the course of a year, money the state’s budget reserve is legally barred from replacing.
Food assistance is taking the same hit. Roughly 440,000 Minnesotans receive SNAP each month—most of them children, seniors, and people with disabilities—on an average benefit of about $6 a day. The new law shifts tens of millions in costs onto the state. In January, Attorney General Keith Ellison went to federal court and blocked a USDA demand that would have forced Minnesota to re-interview 100,000 households or lose its SNAP funding entirely.
Minnesotans also spent the winter under Operation Metro Surge. More than 3,000 federal agents deployed across the state from December to February. They killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both US citizens, and a third man died in ICE custody. Human Rights Watch documented unlawful killings, mass arrests, racial profiling, and surveillance. The operation heavily targeted Somali and Southeast Asian communities, justified by a fraud narrative Trump has pushed for months using racist rhetoric about Minnesota’s Somali residents.
Lindell, Demuth, and Qualls all defended what happened here, or stayed quiet about it. Their records say where they stand on the issues.
Lisa Demuth
Demuth is the Minnesota House Speaker and the only candidate with a voting record. In 2023, she was chief author of HF 1809, a bill to ban abortion. She voted against the PRO Act and the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act that same session.
On healthcare, she voted against a bill to hold drug manufacturers accountable for prescription price increases and opposed legislation to cap the cost of insulin.
Demuth also told the Minnesota Post that Operation Metro Surge ultimately made the state safer. “This is a good sign that the work has been done,” Demuth said. “If you look at the people that were arrested and some of the crimes they’ve been charged with, I believe Minnesota is absolutely safer because people are off the streets.”
She held the gavel during the 2026 session. She also stayed in the race after losing the endorsement, once the party released candidates from their pledge, and she entered the summer with more cash on hand than either opponent.
Kendall Qualls
Qualls is an Army veteran and a retired healthcare executive who founded the conservative group TakeCharge Minnesota in 2021. This is his third statewide or federal run. He lost the 3rd District race in 2020 and lost the 2022 governor’s nomination to Scott Jensen.
He won the party endorsement in Duluth in May after 10 rounds of voting and a voting-machine breakdown that nearly ended the convention without a nominee.
During the federal surge, Qualls posted a video saying Minnesota doesn’t have an ICE problem. He said that, as governor, he would work directly with the Trump administration. He has also described himself as “100 percent pro-life.” In a 2019 Pioneer Press interview, Qualls said he voted for Trump and agreed with his policies.
His running mate, Brian Nicholson, is a corporate CEO and a donor to his campaign, according to Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board records. A court ruled this year that two companies tied to Nicholson owed $77,000 to an insulation contractor who was never paid. Asked about it, Nicholson invoked Trump’s record and called it part of doing business.
Mike Lindell
Lindell built MyPillow in Minnesota and became its face through late-night infomercials. He has spent millions promoting false claims about the 2020 election and testified in court last summer that he was $10 million in debt. He and Trump meet regularly to discuss election conspiracy theories, by Lindell’s own account.
He produced and funded “Unplanned,” an anti-abortion film. He praised Trump’s 2017 tax law, which delivered its largest benefits to corporations and the wealthiest households. During the federal surge, he praised ICE.
Then came last week. Twelve days after winning Trump’s endorsement, Lindell released an 18-page plan to give undocumented workers temporary legal status, calling it a fiscally responsible alternative to mass deportation. There is no path to citizenship in it, and the workers would pay into Social Security and Medicare without qualifying for either. The plan never mentions Minnesota. Governors don’t set immigration policy.
Demuth called the plan “shocking” coming from a Republican. Within hours, Lindell denied it was amnesty and posted on X that he fully supports Trump’s deportation policies.
All three candidates have campaigned on cutting the state budget. Meanwhile, the records line up on the things that impact Minnesota families directly.
RELATED: Mike Lindell wins Trump endorsement, immediately criticizes mass deportation campaign
