Minnesota Supreme Court rejects Mike Lindell’s bid to recount GOP primary

MyPillow founder Mike Lindell has long denied President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. Now, he’s refusing to accept his own election loss in the GOP primary for governor of Minnesota.

The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected Lindell’s bid Saturday to order a full recount of his Aug. 11 loss to state House Speaker Lisa Demuth after she won the Republican primary by 45,000 votes.

Chief Justice Natalie E. Hudson wrote in a six-page ruling that the Minnesota secretary of state’s office and its State Canvassing Board provided a recount plan that follows the law and are “not committing any wrongful act, omission, or error” as Lindell claimed.

Lindell told NBC News in a phone call Saturday evening that he plans to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said that his team is also requesting the data from all 87 counties through the Freedom of Information Act in order to pursue an independent investigation of the election data.

“I’m willing to pay even more money. I don’t care what it costs,” Lindell said.

Lindell previously pledged to pay an estimated $825,000 to cover a full hand recount and audit of the race but refused to pay the money on Monday, which marked the state’s deadline, after finding out that the recount only included counting the ballots cast for either Lindell or Demuth.

Lindell sued the Minnesota secretary of state’s office and its State Canvassing Board Monday, claiming that they pulled a “bait-and-switch” on him by not counting the ballots for everyone in the seven-candidate Republican field.

The secretary of state’s office said in a statement Tuesday that it provided the contingent recount plan to Lindell after the State Canvassing Board approved it Aug. 18, writing that “the plan follows state law and administrative rules on recount procedures and is consistent with previous recount plans.”

Hudson acknowledged in her ruling that Lindell argued that “he is entitled to a full recount for both the Democratic and Republican primary races for governor ‘to ensure that there are no anomalies in the ballots, whether the votes cast are for the Democratic or Republican primaries,’ and that this recount must include ‘the recording of votes for every candidate.’”

“But Lindell’s focus on alleged anomalies confuses the purpose of a manual recount with an election contest,” Hudson wrote.

Hudson maintained that the recount plan approved by the canvassing board Aug. 18 follows protocol, stating that during the recount the ballots would first be sorted between those cast for the Democratic or Republican primary and then the Republican ballots would be separated into three piles: one for Lindell, one for Demuth and one for all other candidates.

“In other words, after all votes are sorted and counted, Lindell would know whether he is the winner over Demuth,” Hudson wrote. “And all ballots, in all piles, would be counted and subject to challenge.”

Hudson’s ruling backs up Demuth’s victory in the GOP primary, reinforcing her spot in the general election against Democratic nominee, Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Lindell said Saturday he would not be satisfied with anything less than a full hand recount of all ballots cast in the Minnesota gubernatorial primary races, arguing that there were “anomalies” in the election data due to the use of electronic voting machines.

Before his own gubernatorial campaign, Lindell faced multiple lawsuits after he repeated debunked claims that the 2020 election was rigged by voting machines.

Lindell was found to have defamed a former employee of one company, Dominion Voting Systems, in June 2025. Lindell has denied the claim.

In another defamation case, Lindell has refused to pay $56,369 in sanctions to voting machine company Smartmatic USA Corp. Because he still has not paid what the court ordered, Lindell now owes even more than the original sanctions in court fees. He told NBC News this month that he still does not intend to pay either the fees or sanctions.