Lindell Self-Funds Hand Recount After 11-Point Loss
Lindell Self-Funds Hand Recount After 11-Point Loss
The News
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell says he will personally fund a statewide hand recount and audit of every paper ballot cast in Minnesota's Republican primary for governor — a race he lost by roughly 11 percentage points to state House Speaker Lisa Demuth.
Lindell announced the effort in a press release this week, citing what he called irregularities in election-night electronic reporting and vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines.
He says it is the largest privately funded statewide paper ballot recount and audit in U.S. history.
Timeline
President Donald Trump endorsed Lindell in the Minnesota governor's race, writing on Truth Social that Lindell "truly loves Minnesota, as do I, and wants to bring it back from oblivion and embarrassment," and that "nobody has sacrificed more than Mike Lindell in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to Election Integrity."
Lindell lost the GOP primary to Demuth by more than 11 points. After media outlets projected the race for Demuth, Lindell said he would wait for a full count, telling reporters, "There's 265,000 votes left to count. I'm down by 18,000 now. I'm not going to give up this race until the votes are counted. That's nonsense."
Lindell announced the privately funded recount and audit of every paper ballot in the primary, alleging vote totals that moved backward during reporting, unusual synchronized vote totals across all seven Republican candidates, and counties reporting more votes than were cast.
Reactions
"One of the few good election laws Minnesota does have is that as a candidate, I have the right to completely audit and hand count every ballot in the state, and I am going to exercise that right to full extent of the law," Lindell said in his press release.
"Even if this recount and audit does not overturn my election for governor of Minnesota, I believe this is the gateway to getting rid of these electronic voting machines," he said. "One hundred and thirty-two countries have banned these machines already. The United States should be setting the standard for elections, instead we are the worst in the world."
On X, Lindell wrote: "With just 6.7% of the vote reported compared to 93.7%, the candidates' percentages were virtually unchanged. Then there's this: reported vote totals actually went DOWN." He added that the effort "is much bigger than Minnesota."
The Minnesota secretary of state's office declined to comment to The Hill on the audit.
Minnesota GOP Chairman Alex Plechash has said Demuth is "the candidate best positioned to defeat Amy Klobuchar."
What's Next
Lindell says the hand count will proceed "with maximum lawful transparency, including designated observers stationed throughout the hand-counting process."
Demuth faces Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November for the seat being vacated by retiring Gov. Tim Walz.
Separately, Lindell said in a video on X that his legal team has asked a judge in Minneapolis for a new ruling in his defamation case against voting machine company Smartmatic, arguing the decision should be revisited after Trump "declassified evidence" last month from intelligence agencies about voting machine companies. The National Desk reported that a Minnesota federal judge ruled in June 2025 that Lindell defamed Smartmatic with false statements about its machines, in a case tied to his criticism of the 2020 results in Los Angeles County.
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Lindell's alliance with Trump followed his agreement with the president that the 2020 election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden. Establishment Republicans in Minnesota were skeptical of his candidacy, and party chairman Plechash backed Demuth's general-election prospects against Klobuchar.
Lindell also noted a point of agreement with his party's opponent: he said in the X video that Klobuchar "has also advocated to get rid of the electronic voting machines, and go to paper ballots hand-counted. On that, Amy and I agree."
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