President Trump gave his “complete and total” endorsement to MyPillow founder Mike Lindell in the Minnesota governor’s race on Wednesday. The endorsement upended a three-way GOP primary just weeks before the Aug. 11 vote and prompted a rare public break with Trump from the state party’s own chairman. However, the hopeful governor hit a minor road bump: he isn’t even registered to vote in the state, which raised some eyebrows among his would-be voters.
In a post shared to Reddit and a story originally reported by Star Tribune, Trump’s official endorsement to compete against Tim Walz this midterm can’t actually vote for himself, or anybody else for that matter either. This caused constituents across Minnesota to wonder if he’s the right candidate for the job.
Lindell, a longtime Trump ally who has spent years amplifying false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, entered the race last December and finished third at the state GOP convention in the spring, where Kendall Qualls won the party’s formal endorsement. He’s running against House Speaker Lisa Demuth and Qualls for the right to face Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November. No Republican has won statewide office in Minnesota since 2006. Here is what voters had to say about the revelation.
“Republicans benefiting from a system they want to strip away from others? color me shocked!”
“Wait. So if he loses does that mean he will leave here for Texas for good? Because I could see a send Mike back to Texas campaign gaining some popularity.”
“Regardless of party I could not vote for someone to run my state who didn’t live in my state until deciding to run. This also applies to local politics. If you cared you’d did some work at least a year before raising your hand to run. At least!!!”
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Minnesota candidate Lindell is “one of America’s greatest and most hard working Patriots” who will be “SPECTACULAR,” adding that “nobody has sacrificed more than Mike Lindell in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to Election Integrity.“
