Following a defeat to House Speaker Lisa Demuth in the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial primary, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell is making waves after initially announcing plans to personally fund a statewide hand recount.
Trailing by roughly 45,000 votes, Lindell fell well short of the state’s threshold for an automatic, publicly funded audit. That leaves his campaign on the hook for an estimated $825,000 fee. A wild move that triggered an immediate wave of online ridicule and skepticism across the internet and among local voters.
In a post shared on Reddit and originally reported by CBS, the online reaction was swift, with voters calling out the stunt and questioning whether local venues and vendors would ever see that money. Critics cited a long history of unpaid campaign debts in cities like Minneapolis and St. Cloud, mocking the idea of paying for a recount when the candidate trails by tens of thousands of votes.
Minnesota Locals React
One citizen stated, “I. Am. Shocked!! Who could have predicted this? Dude I don’t think Minneapolis got paid for back in 2016. No chance he’s worked his way up to 2020.” Others pointed out the mounting legal fees and civil lawsuits Lindell has faced over the years, questioning how the campaign intends to cover the massive tab. “Does he even have the money? Seriously this clown owes the voting machine people millions doesn’t he?” another user wrote in the thread.
The drama heightened when Lindell withheld the $825,000 payment right at the state’s deadline, accusing the Secretary of State’s office of proposing an “unlawful” recount plan. Lindell’s campaign argued that officials planned to recount votes only for Demuth and Lindell, not every candidate on the ballot, and requested a deadline extension until a court can rule on the parameters. State election officials responded by confirming that the approved procedures follow standard state law used for over two decades. “The lawsuit was dropped after Dominion was bought by, YOU GUESSED IT, a former Republican election official,” stated one angry Democrat.
With the primary results certified, Demuth moves forward to face Democratic nominee Amy Klobuchar in the November general election, leaving Lindell’s recount request stalled for lack of funding.
