House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, announced Tuesday, June 2, that she will run in the Republican primary for Minnesota governor despite previously pledging to drop out of the race if she lost the GOP endorsement.
The party’s more than 2,000 delegates chose Army veteran and former healthcare executive Kendall Qualls on Saturday in a lengthy process that took 10 ballots to resolve.
The announcement sets up a three-way Republican primary on Aug. 11 between Demuth, Qualls and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
The winner of the primary will face presumptive Democratic-Farmer-Labor nominee Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November.
Demuth justified reneging on her pledge to abide by the endorsement by pointing to alleged voting irregularities at the convention in Duluth, which led Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Alex Plechash to give candidates who pledged allegiance to the endorsement process the green light to go to the primary.
“That felt like a full release that we could go forward,” Demuth said at a Tuesday press conference in front of the Capitol. “Minnesotans know we are the strongest ticket to defeat the Democrat machine here in Minnesota.”
Plechash said the state Republican Party is still backing Qualls and he will receive access to the party’s resources and be the subject of party advertising.
Demuth’s leadership in the Minnesota Legislature makes her the most qualified among the GOP candidates and the most electable, she argued.
“No other Republican candidate for governor has any experience in the Legislature and leading the state,” she said.
The three-way GOP primary means that the Republican candidates will be focused campaigning throughout the summer amongst themselves, leaving Klobuchar to campaign without a known opponent.
Klobuchar is the state’s most accomplished vote-getter and a formidable fundraiser, and she’s the heavy favorite to win in the general election against a Republican opponent.
Demuth, with $448,000, had more cash on hand at the beginning of the year compared to Lindell and Qualls, but that pales in comparison to Klobuchar’s $3.4 million cash on hand.
In response to Demuth’s refusal to drop out, Qualls said that she’s prioritizing “vanity and political ambitions.”
“The sad part is that when we win in August, we will have wasted time and money fighting amongst ourselves to come to the same conclusion: victory for our campaign,” Qualls said in a statement.
The Minnesota GOP convention has received national attention for holding a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin, the convicted murderer of George Floyd.
Asked if she would vote to pardon Chauvin if elected governor, Demuth didn’t answer.
“The ability for a governor to do any type of pardons — obviously, there’s a pardon board — there’s a lot that goes into any type of decision,” Demuth said.
The Minnesota governor, attorney general and chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court sit on a pardon board, so a governor doesn’t have the unilateral authority to pardon someone.
Qualls also did not answer a question about whether he would pardon Chauvin during a Monday press briefing.
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.
