Photo: Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune/Getty Images

Up until now, the Minnesota gubernatorial contest has mostly been about a large number of credible but hardly household-name Republican pols elbowing each other for the opportunity to face incumbent Tim Walz. Now, suddenly, Kamala Harris’s running mate is probably the second-most-famous candidate in the field, as Donald Trump’s favorite bonkers conspiracy theorist and product huckster, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, has announced a campaign.

Presumably, Lindell very badly wants to ban voting machines in Minnesota, since claims of rigged machines have been his distinctive contribution to the fantasy world of MAGA election-denial activism. But according to the New York Times, the frenetic pillow salesman has a broader right-wing platform:

In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Lindell pledged that he would not back down from his claims about election security, and said they would play a central role in his candidacy. But he also said that other issues — school choice in education, a hard-line stance against illegal immigration, reducing crime in “inner cities” and expanding programs to help with drug addiction — would round out his platform.

“I’m tired of these decisions being made by our government here in Minnesota that don’t help any of us,” Mr. Lindell said. He pointed to his record in the private sector: “There’s no one else that can do as good a job as I know I can do, because I’ve had to build businesses, and it needs to be run like a business.”

It’s unclear whether his proud claims of being a shrewd businessperson can survive fresh scrutiny of his many legal problems and whether those problems (including yet-to-be-determined liability in defamation suits by voting-machine companies) might interfere with his ability to finance a statewide campaign. But he won’t lack for name ID or the ability to attract attention. And he has a not-so-secret weapon, as he explained to the Minnesota Star Tribune:

Lindell said Trump’s former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is giving him political advice. He said Giuliani now works for his media network, LindellTV.

“He’s been part of many campaigns,” Lindell said. “He knows what he’s doing.”

What I’m sure he wants even more than Rudy’s pearls of strategic wisdom is an endorsement from his buddy the president, which is legal tender in any competitive Republican primary anywhere. But he’s not totally counting on it:

Lindell said he told Trump in August he was considering running for Minnesota governor, but he declined to say how the president responded. He said he hopes to receive Trump’s endorsement but noted the president did not back him when he ran for chair of the Republican National Committee.

But in any event, Lindell’s candidacy creates a lot of problems for his Republican rivals in this race (who number nine already). Given the cachet he has with Trump, they can’t just call Lindell a kook without fear of a Truth Social thunderbolt. For that matter, they can’t without repercussions disagree with Lindell’s fierce claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, even if they decline to endorse every single lurid conspiracy charge. The most obvious way to marginalize Lindell would be through Minnesota’s hallowed party-endorsement system, by which state party-convention delegates can choose a favorite next spring. Traditionally, most Republicans have abided by the convention’s decision, but that appears not to be the case in 2026. Two leading candidates, 2022 gubernatorial nominee Scott Jensen and state legislator Kristin Robbins, say they’ll run in the August primary no matter what. Another, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, has been ambivalent about it. And it may not matter, since a party endorsement requires 60 percent of delegates, a difficult goal in so crowded a field.

If a bunch of these folks do run in the primary, Lindell will create another problem: Minnesota has no majority-vote requirement or runoffs for party nominations. So if, say, three or four or five credible candidates run in the primary, Lindell with his name ID and a grip on the MAGA fringe could have a good chance of victory.

That’s another way of saying the main beneficiary of Lindell’s candidacy may be Walz, who might otherwise be in some real trouble because of a recently revealed social-services fraud scandal involving up to a billion dollars in stolen pandemic assistance, aside from unease over the incumbent’s long tenure in office (he’s running for a third term). If voters are talking a lot about him and his exotic belief system, a super-normie like Walz might be more attractive than ever.

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