Mike Lindell seeks Republican nomination for Minnesota governor. His ideas for the job are fuzzy
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Republican candidate for governor Mike Lindell has a lot of pitches for the people of Minnesota:
He wants to right-size the state budget, in part by implementing an office of government efficiency modeled after the DOGE effort President Donald Trump tasked tech mogul Elon Musk to carry out.
He’s got suggestions for Trump about amnesty for people entering the country without proper authorization if they’ve not committed crimes here.
He’s proposed eliminating the state sales tax, lowering property taxes and shrinking corporate tax rates.
On the surface, the proposals might sound enticing to GOP voters in the Aug. 11 primary. His campaign has driven hundreds out to town hall events around the state to learn more about Lindell and how he’d make it all happen.
But more often than not, those who show up walk away without a concrete plan. A Lindell-organized forum last week in Sauk Centre is a case in point. He was asked about issues of housing affordability for people in mobile homes, services for people with disabilities and what can be done to strengthen the economy. Lindell told attendees he’d follow up with them.
“We’ll do our due diligence,” he and his running mate Phillip Parrish said repeatedly. Or “We’ll do our best.”
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That’s been the case, too, as Lindell touts a budget vision that he said could shrink state spending while fighting fraud and keeping programs intact. For weeks, he’s vowed to release the proposal ahead of the primary election also featuring Republican Party endorsed candidate Kendall Qualls and House Speaker Lisa Demuth.
“I'm going to have my budget done, hopefully in about two weeks. I want to get it done before August 11th to show people what we can do and what I am going to do,” Lindell said last week. “I hate when politicians make promises just to get votes. I'm not like that.”
Deferred plan
Lindell, a businessman who has never held elected office, initially laid out a two-week goal on July 6 when speaking to an MPR News reporter for a story on the way GOP candidates are approaching fiscal issues. It has been three and a half weeks.
Minnesota’s constitution requires a balanced budget, so tax collections and spending need to level out in the end. Sizable tax cuts could depend on sizable program cuts.
While Lindell’s campaign website offers a broad framework of how he’d come down on issues ranging from agriculture to economic development to election security to health care, there are few specifics.
The MyPillow CEO, who has been endorsed by Trump, has frequently floated ideas in public events or media interviews that he later walks back or revises on the fly.
Lindell faced blowback from the Republican base after describing an amnesty plan for people in the country without proper authorization. He has since reframed his ideas in media interviews and public events.
The result has made it difficult for voters and other political observers to pin down exactly what Lindell stands for and what he’d do if he lands the job.
“I think to some extent, Mike Lindell doesn't really know what he would do as governor,” said GOP operative Preya Samsundar. “I think that this was a longshot bid to begin with that has somehow materialized into a campaign that has legs to now be the campaign that we all have to coalesce around for November should he win in August.”
Samsundar said she expects to see much of Lindell’s messaging match Trump’s.
Some of Lindell’s proposals for boosting the local economy or managing immigration include trying to get into Trump’s ear about changes at the federal level that could spill down to Minnesota.
Level of detail differs
With the primary approaching, some polls have put Lindell in the lead. He trails Demuth in overall fundraising although both were significantly outraised by likely DFL nominee Amy Klobuchar.
Klobuchar has rolled out detailed policy proposals to deal with fraud, health care, housing and workforce development. To some degree, Demuth and Qualls have outlined where they stand on fraud and state budgeting, but they haven’t broken out as many specific issue briefs as Klobuchar.
Samsundar said that heading into a potential matchup with Klobuchar, currently a U.S. senator, Republicans need to bring a detailed rundown of how they’d govern.
“They need to come up with real plans, real solutions, and substantive issues that they can point to on the Democrat side that need to be fixed, things in the state that need to be dealt with in order to make the lives of Minnesotans better,” she said.
So far, Samsundar said, Lindell hasn’t done that.
“To assume that he has the ability to turn that around in the matter of two months, three months before Election Day,” she said. “I think that's setting the expectations a little too high.”
In the hunt for the party’s nomination, both Lindell and Qualls have sought to position themselves as the “outsider” candidate. But that means less is known about what they’d support if legislation reaches their desk.
Demuth said she has a more-transparent record for voters. They can see where she’s stood on various issues in the Minnesota House, for better or worse.
“I've got a proven track record with my time in the Legislature of what I've stood for, how I have worked, and so I am a proven leader,” Demuth said. “As opposed to another candidate that is unproven, and people are only hearing what they would maybe do as opposed to what I've actually done.”
Despite that, Lindell said he’s confident he can pull off an upset.
“I'm going around the state, and I have been doing rallies, just like Donald Trump,” Lindell told MPR News. “I want to have the highest money ever raised because I'm going to put it to the best use in history. I'm not taking the primary for granted. I'm just saying if it gets to the point with Klobuchar, we're ready now.”
