MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says he may run for Minnesota governor — even though he’s living in Texas

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is considering running for Minnesota governor in 2026, saying the direction of the state has gone “down, down, down” under DFL Gov. Tim Walz’s watch.

But there’s one hiccup: Lindell has been living in Texas. The pillow magnate acknowledged in an interview Thursday he will have to re-establish residency in Minnesota if he runs for governor.

Records show Lindell has recently been living in Lufkin, Texas, and has been registered to vote in the Lone Star State since January 2023. In a Carver County court filing in January, Lindell is described as “a Texas citizen.” He is likewise described as a resident of Texas in other lawsuits MyPillow launched last fall against merchant cash advance companies.

“Obviously, if I go all in to run, I have got to be a Minnesota resident. I know the rules,” said Lindell, adding he owns homes in both states. “You just have to spend a majority of your time. And obviously, if I ran for governor, I would spend 99 percent of my time here, of course.”

“I’m very well aware what I have to do with Minnesota,” Lindell added. “If it was next year and I was announcing, I would still have time to get the residency requirements.”

To be considered a Minnesota resident for tax purposes, one must spend at least 183 days in the state during the year and own, rent or maintain a residence.

Candidates for governor are subject to an additional requirement: They must be a Minnesota resident for at least one year before the general election, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Asked how much time he spends in Texas, Lindell said, “I don’t know. I haven’t looked lately.” He said his wife is from Lufkin, a city of about 34,000 in east Texas, and some of their family members live there.

Lindell, who’s peddled unfounded election fraud theories for years, said “there also was a lot of stuff that I had to do in Texas,” referring to his efforts to push local governments to ditch voting machines in favor of hand-counted paper ballots.

For the past three months, Lindell said he’s spent most of his time in Minnesota defending MyPillow and its employees in legal actions.

Lindell and MyPillow have faced a flood of lawsuits in recent years, from defamation claims brought by voting machine companies to litigation over unpaid bills. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has also been investigating three nonprofits that list Lindell as president over possible violations of state charity law.

“My companies ... they continue to get attacked, and they’re getting attacked only for one reason: I’m standing up to get paper ballots hand-counted,” Lindell asserted.

As for his possible run for governor, Lindell said he’s gauging interest through polling and will possibly make an announcement within the next two weeks. He said he’d run on a platform of “secure elections” and “common sense,” seeking to run the state like a business.

Lindell said he thinks Minnesota’s education system has worsened during Walz’s tenure. He criticized Walz’s response to the 2020 riots and said he disagrees with the governor’s criticisms of Elon Musk, whom he believes is “trying to save the whole country money.”

“It really triggered me,” Lindell said, referring to Walz’s feud with Musk. “Minnesota needs to get rid of this guy.”

Walz has said he’ll decide whether to seek a third consecutive term as governor by this summer. The Democrat has also left the door open to a possible 2028 run for president, and he’s traveled the country in recent months to speak to Democratic groups.

No prominent Republicans have announced campaigns for governor yet, but former GOP nominee Scott Jensen and others are considering it.

Responding to Lindell’s possible candidacy on Thursday, Minnesota DFL Chair Richard Carlbom said: “The fact that Mike Lindell could plausibly win the Republican primary for governor underscores how extreme the Minnesota Republican Party has become.”

Brooks Johnson of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.