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Minnesota political conventions 2026: DFL, GOP pick candidates
Dana Ferguson
Duluth, Minn.

Qualls inches closer to GOP endorsement after voting glitch delays balloting

Nate Qualls and his wife address delegates
Kendall Qualls (left), candidate for governor, and his wife, Sheila, after his address to delegates at the GOP convention in Duluth, on Saturday, May 30, 2026.
Carly Danek for MPR News

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Businessman Kendall Qualls inched closer to the 60 percent threshold needed for endorsement on a seventh ballot Saturday night as Minnesota Republicans sought to endorse a candidate for governor.

After a long delay in voting, Qualls received 57.2% of the vote compared to House Speaker Lisa Demuth’s 39.7%. The two were the final candidates after delegates narrowed the pool from six candidates.

Delegates planned to cast an eighth ballot Saturday night.

Demuth and others raised questions about the integrity of the result after party leaders delayed voting for hours after “inconsistencies” with the electronic voting devices were detected.

Efforts to suspend the rules to allow the delegates to take up a motion to bypass an endorsement in the governor’s race failed. Several people also proposed voting on paper ballots, but that also came up short.

Rep. Danny Nadeau, R-Rogers, co-chaired the convention and told delegates that officials detected issues on a sixth ballot.

“We were having problems with the system, and so I'm not saying that there's errors in here, but these were two anomalies,” Nadeau said.

Demuth and her supporters said the glitches gave them pause about the election outcome.

“Election integrity matters, even when it comes down to something as broken as a system as this. Election integrity matters. There is no confidence in what is happening,” Demuth said ahead of the vote.

Qualls said the delay and the question about the integrity of the vote were a pretext for Demuth to bypass the endorsement process and move to a primary.

“The corrupt St. Paul swamp, the establishment we've been talking about, want to protect themselves, because it's been a two-hour delay,” Qualls said. “They can play with all the shenanigans and all the things they want. These clickers were working for all day yesterday for every candidate.”

Several candidates have already said they intend to move on to an August primary.