The Minnesota Supreme Court on Saturday rejected MyPillow founder Mike Lindell's bid to force a sweeping recount of the Republican gubernatorial primary — not just because he missed the filing deadline or refused to pay, but because the court found he was asking for the wrong legal tool to begin with. Chief Justice Natalie E. Hudson's six-page ruling, issued August 29, 2026, makes explicit what Lindell's months of escalating claims obscured: a manual recount verifies that the math was counted correctly; it cannot investigate fraud, anomalies, or whether electronic tabulators were manipulated. That determination — under Minnesota law — belongs in an entirely different legal proceeding called an election contest. Lindell never filed one.
The ruling locks in House Speaker Lisa Demuth as the certified Republican nominee for governor. She will face Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar — who won her party's gubernatorial primary on August 11 with 89.1 percent of the vote — in the November 3 general election, with ballot printing scheduled to begin September 3 and early voting set to open September 18 per the election calendar.
