Lindell declines to concede Minnesota GOP gubernatorial primary, cites uncounted votes
Republican candidate Mike Lindell said he will not concede his loss to Lisa Demuth in Minnesota's governor primary, alleging that hundreds of thousands of votes remain uncounted despite the official certification of results.
Mike Lindell, a former Trump ally and the former head of My Pillow, told reporters on Tuesday that he would not concede the Republican primary for Minnesota governor to House Speaker Lisa Demuth, despite the Associated Press calling the race in her favor. Lindell claimed that about 265,000 votes cast on Election Day had not yet been counted and that the margin of his defeat could be overturned.
"The AP? Why would I listen to the AP? There's 265,000 votes left to count. I'm down by 18,000 now. We just gained 5,000. I'm not going to give up this race until the votes are counted," Lindell said.
The Associated Press declared Demuth the winner at 11:26 p.m., and the Minnesota Secretary of State confirmed that all precincts had been tallied by the following morning. Official results showed Demuth with 179,546 votes (43%) and Lindell with 134,198 votes (32%).
Lindell said he would review the final batch of votes and questioned the state's computerized counting system, suggesting that paper ballots would be more reliable. He mentioned that his team had identified "a couple of anomalies," but provided no specifics.
The Lindell campaign did not immediately confirm whether he would continue to withhold concession, but a spokesperson indicated a statement was planned for Thursday. No further comments from Lindell have been reported since the primary.
Demuth will face Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar in the November gubernatorial election.