President Trump has encouraged the CEO of MyPillow to run for governor in Minnesota.
Mike Lindell appeared with Trump at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Monday, where he announced his company was aiming to manufacture 50,000 cotton face masks a day amid the pandemic.
The multimillionaire inventor has told associates that Trump has urged him to launch a gubernatorial bid in 2022 to “keep Minnesota red beyond” the 2020 race, Politico reported. The president told him that “he really wants me to run,” a person with direct knowledge of the comments said.
Lindell posted a photo of himself with Trump at the White House in February, thanking the president for appointing him as chairman of the Trump 2020 campaign in Minnesota.
“We will make Minnesota great again!” he captioned the photo.
Despite the rumors, Lindell denied Trump had nudged him to run.
“I’ve never talked to Donald Trump about it. I rarely have a conversation with him, maybe once in a blue moon,” he said.
Lindell would likely run against Democratic incumbent Gov. Tim Walz, who was elected in 2018 after Mark Dayton decided not to run for a third term. Tim Pawlenty, who was governor from 2003 to 2011, was the last Republican governor in the state.
The state has a history of voting in political outsiders. Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, a Reform Party candidate, was governor from 1999 to 2003. Comedian Al Franken won two terms in the Senate before he stepped down amid sexual misconduct allegations.
