My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has filed to run for governor of Minnesota, creating a committee that will allow him to raise money for his campaign.
The 64-year-old MAGA conspiracy theorist submitted his paperwork on Wednesday, according to online records from the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board.
In an interview Wednesday afternoon with Minnesota Public Radio, Lindell said he hadn’t formally decided to enter the race, but is “98% sure” he’ll run. He said he’ll make his decision official on Dec. 11.
The Mankato, Minn., native has flirted with the idea of challenging current Democratic Gov. Tim Waltz since at least September when he told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he had “99%” of the pieces in place to mount a campaign.
“I love the state, I love the country and if I’m the only one that can win, that would be a shame if that opportunity slipped by,” Lindell said.
He’d have to outperform a crowded field of Republicans to take down the state’s incumbent.
Lindell, a longtime ally of the Trump administration, was ubiquitous during the president’s first term in office, thanks in part to his bedding company ads and personal appearances on right-wing media outlets like Fox News.
His infamy grew after the 2020 presidential election when he spoke to nearly any media outlet that would offer him a platform, insisting the election had somehow been rigged. Those unsubstantiated claims led to Lindell facing several lawsuits, including one from voting machine company Smartmatic, which a judge in September ruled that he’d defamed.
He claimed during a separate defamation trial with a Dominion Voting Systems worker that he’s millions of dollars in debt and still faces legal challenges linked to his attempts to find fraud with the election.
Celebrity Net Worth estimated Lindell’s worth was as much as $300 million prior to his legal woes. The financial site now values him at $0. He told a judge in April that he’d borrowed all the money he could find and had no cash, according to the Street.
In 2021, Lindell launched his own media site called Lindell TV. He posted a video there Wednesday promising news next week meant to “save Minnesota and save our country too.”
