GOP Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth launches campaign for governor

House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, is running for Minnesota governor, joining a slew of Republican candidates who are vying to challenge Gov. Tim Walz next November.

Demuth, who served as the GOP House minority leader during the Democrats’ 2023-2024 trifecta, raised money and recruited candidates to topple the trifecta in 2024. Republicans flipped three key swing districts in 2024, bringing the House to a 67-67 tie between Republicans and Democrats.

Though the tie hasn’t allowed Republicans to pass significant legislation, Republicans were able to block Democratic priorities — while propelling Demuth to emerge as the face of Republican opposition.

Demuth, 58, was first elected to the Minnesota House in 2018 after serving on her local school board in Cold Spring — about 20 miles southwest of St. Cloud — for over a decade.

Demuth’s campaign website was active Sunday.

“I’ll never bow to the radical mob,” Demuth says in a campaign video while a shotgun is slung over her shoulder. “And I’ll never apologize for standing up for common sense … Let’s fire Tim Walz and take our state back.”

During a Capitol press conference Monday, Demuth said that as the highest-ranking Republican in state government, her record as a leader makes her the best candidate for governor.

“I have solid conservative values that really do cross party lines. They are conservative values that are supported by many Minnesotans,” Demuth said.

The House speaker joins a growing field of GOP candidates who are seeking to beat Walz next year, including Republican Rep. Kristin Robbins; 2022 GOP nominee for governor Scott Jensen; and Kendall Qualls, an army veteran and health care executive. If Republicans can raise money and blanket the media, they’ll have plenty to work with to attack Walz’s nearly eight years in office, from flagging school test scores to fraud-riddled government programs.

Demuth is likely to pitch herself as an electable general election candidate compared to the rest of the field. Demuth and Robbins are both Minnesota House members and Robbins has raised her profile in recent months by publicizing fraud in public programs.

But Robbins served as state chair for 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley, which will likely be a frequent source of attacks from Republicans who will question her loyalty to Trump.

Republican primary voters tend to follow the party’s convention endorsement, wherein hundreds of hardcore activists — often the most ideologically dogmatic — decide the candidates’ fate.

Demuth said her “intent” is to abide by the GOP’s endorsement, but she left the door open to running in a primary. A number of GOP candidates for governor have already said they will run in a GOP primary whether or not they are party-endorsed.

Demuth was elected House speaker earlier this year after a rancorous start to the legislative session. A judge ruled one of the newly elected Democrats ineligible for office because he didn’t live in the district. Republicans sought to use a temporary 67-66 advantage to win full control of the chamber, and Demuth threatened to refuse to seat Democratic Rep. Brad Tabke, who won a contested race.

To prevent this usurpation, Democrats boycotted the session for three weeks and then won a Supreme Court case. The two sides came to an agreement wherein Tabke was seated, and Demuth could claim the speakership for the whole two-year session.

Demuth became Minnesota’s first Black House speaker and first Republican woman speaker. She used her caucus’ power of exactly half of the House to force the DFL to roll back state-subsidized health insurance for undocumented immigrants. House Republicans also blocked numerous tax increases proposed by Democrats.

Demuth agreed to a few tax increases, including increasing the state’s tax on cannabis from 10% to 15% and repealing the electricity sales tax exemption for data centers, which will increase costs for companies — which could make for attack fodder from her fellow tax-loathing Republicans.

Long negotiations in the split Legislature caused lawmakers to go into a one-day special session and pass a $66 billion biennium budget.

Right on cue, Robbins decried the deal in a statement Sunday, saying that although she’s friends with the House speaker, Demuth isn’t electable.

“Lisa Demuth agreed to a backroom budget deal that raised taxes and shut down the Stillwater prison with no plan which will result in releasing criminals back into our communities,” Robbins said. “Demuth and Walz raised our taxes and made our streets less safe, and that’s exactly what I’m fighting against.”

Demuth was born in Paynesville, Minnesota, and has four children. She’s spent the bulk of her life in rural Minnesota. Outside of politics, Demuth manages commercial properties, and her husband, Nick Demuth, runs Avon Plastics in Paynesville.

In response to Demuth’s campaign for governor, Alliance for a Better Minnesota — a progressive political group — said Minnesota needs a governor who will stand up to Trump, not acquiesce to him.

“Lisa Demuth would bring Trump’s dangerous agenda to Minnesota. She would take away our reproductive freedoms, underfund our public schools and give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations at the expense of Minnesota families,” Marissa Luna, executive director at Alliance for a Better Minnesota, said in a statement.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.