Minnesota GOP picks Lisa Demuth over Trump-backed Mike Lindell for governor

Minnesota state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won the Republican primary for governor, defeating Trump-endorsed MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, according to NBC News. Demuth will face Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the general election.

Lindell, who led in limited public polling heading into Election Day and carried President Donald Trump's endorsement, entered the primary as a frontrunner. But attacks from fellow Republicans in the final weeks altered the race's trajectory. The chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party raised questions about Lindell's residency, and party members pursued a nominee they believed could defeat Klobuchar in the general election, per NBC News.

Lindell is the founder of MyPillow and has championed Trump's debunked theories about the 2020 presidential election, which former President Joe Biden won. He has faced several legal challenges since 2020, according to NBC News reporting.

Demuth has centered her campaign on two fraud scandals involving Medicaid and pandemic aid that have roiled the state. At a Minnesota Farmfest forum this month, Demuth blamed "incompetent Democrat control" for the fraud cases and pointed to the Fraud Prevention Agency Oversight Committee, which she established leading the state House, per NBC News. She has attacked Democrats on the campaign trail over the alleged theft of hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for welfare programs.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who had planned to run for a third term, dropped his re-election campaign in January, citing attacks over the fraud cases. Klobuchar launched her campaign a few weeks later and advanced in her primary. At the same Farmfest forum, Klobuchar accused the GOP gubernatorial candidates of being "a rubber stamp of Donald Trump."

Klobuchar is one of four senators running for governor this year. In the most recent presidential election, then-Vice President Kamala Harris won Minnesota by about 4 percentage points, with Walz as her running mate. Klobuchar "romped in her primary," per NBC News reporting.