U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth won their respective party primaries on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, setting up a November gubernatorial showdown. Demuth defeated MyPillow founder Mike Lindell in a Republican primary, while Klobuchar secured an overwhelming victory in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary.
Lisa Demuth Defeats Mike Lindell in a GOP Primary
Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth fended off MyPillow founder and Trump loyalist Mike Lindell to capture the Republican gubernatorial nomination on Tuesday night. By 11 p.m. on August 11, with 358,224 votes counted according to unofficial results cited by duluthnewstribune.com, Demuth led the GOP field with 44% of the primary vote.
Lindell finished second with 32% of the vote, and businessman Kendall Qualls secured 21%. The Republican primary served as a major test of the influence wielded by both the state party and President Donald Trump, who had granted Lindell a late-in-the-game endorsement last month. Despite Trump’s backing, Republican primary voters in Minnesota maintained a long-standing tradition: the party has not selected a non-party-endorsed candidate since 1991.
Much of the primary’s attention centered on Lindell, whose active promotion of false election denial claims surrounding the 2020 election caused anxiety among some state Republican leaders.
Speaking at his election watch party at the Hilton in Minneapolis, Lindell vowed to back the winner of the primary in November, though he expressed skepticism about the party’s prospects against the Democratic machine.
Amy Klobuchar Dominates the DFL Field Amid Record Fundraising
On the Democratic side, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar secured her party’s nomination in a decisive landslide. By 11 p.m. on election night, Klobuchar commanded 90% of the DFL primary vote with 625,985 votes counted, easily defeating her sole convention challenger, 26-year-old Kobey Lane.
Klobuchar entered the contest following a dramatic shift in the race that began in January 2026, when Democratic Gov. Tim Walz abandoned his bid for a historic third term amid heightened fraud scrutiny. Klobuchar quickly emerged as the favorite, backed by the DFL endorsement and bolstered by a massive war chest that brought in $4.4 million in cash on hand by the end of July.
Breaking a Two-Decade Drought or Extending Blue Control
Demuth campaigned on her record presiding over a nearly evenly divided state House, emphasizing her willingness to work across the aisle and framing herself as the Republican equipped to snap her party’s more than two-decade losing streak in gubernatorial contests. Republicans have not won a statewide race in Minnesota in 20 years.
Demuth has also signaled that her general election messaging will heavily target fraud in state government programs, mirroring themes emphasized by outgoing Gov. Walz, who announced he would spend his remaining time in office tackling program fraud. Demuth pointed to her clashes with Walz during state budget negotiations as proof of her conservative fighting spirit.
If Klobuchar wins the governorship, one of Minnesota’s two U.S. Senate seats will become vacant, requiring the new governor to appoint a replacement to fill the seat.
