Politico reporter Aaron Pellish reported that Republicans are reaching for the Minnesota governor’s seat this year, but the quality of their ball could be a problem.
“Minnesota has been the white whale for Republicans in the Trump era. And 2026 could be the year they finally break through — if President Donald Trump and one of the most prolific peddlers of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election don’t sink their chances,” Pellish wrote.
Republicans hope to unseat Democratic Gov. Tim Walz next year as he seeks a third term. But Trump’s attacks on Walz and his racist assault on Minnesota’s Somali community is now getting paired with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s entrance into the race.
“When the president comes in with a flamethrower and just throws that type of rhetoric, there’s no oxygen, and there’s no space for the Republican to offer suggestions and to be thoughtful in that space, because the rhetoric of the president just paints them into a corner,” said Minnesota GOP former deputy chair Michael Brodkorb.
Trump lost Minnesota by less than two points in 2016, which Pellish said made the blue state a GOP target ever since, despite Trump’s seven-point loss in 2020 and a four-point loss in 2024.
Walz is now on the defense because his administration failed to pick up on massive statewide benefits fraud, while Trump has also used the arrests of some Somali immigrants in federal fraud cases to paint the state’s Somali population as criminals.
But state Republicans are worried Trump’s divisive rhetoric will fall flat in tolerant Minnesota. This, coupled with Lindell winning the Republican nomination in the primary, could be a deathblow to their success.
“We’d be cooked,” said Dustin Grage, a Minnesota Republican strategist. “I’d be moving to Florida very shortly. We would lose pretty badly if Mike Lindell were to get the nomination.”
But the White House is confident the state is up for grabs, with House GOP Whip Tom Emmer — the most high-profile Minnesota Republican and an ally of the president, according to Pellish — saying any of the 13 Republicans seeking the party’s nomination can beat Walz.
“We should be able to beat Tim Walz with a dog,” Emmer told POLITICO in an interview.
Democrats are equally confident that Trump’s economic policies are hurting local residents too much for any Trump ally to win a race here, however, while Brodkorb frets that, “the problem is when the president comes in and says things like, ‘Everyone in the entire Somali community is garbage.’”
Read the Politico report at this link.
