President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate for Minnesota governor fell short in Tuesday’s Republican primary, while former television sports reporter Michele Tafoya won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, according to race projections.
Minnesota state Rep. Lisa Demuth was projected to defeat Mike Lindell in the Republican gubernatorial primary, according to Decision Desk HQ. Trump had endorsed Lindell, the businessman widely known as the “My Pillow Guy,” and made a late push for his candidacy, declaring that Lindell “deserves a BIG WIN.”
Demuth emerged from a crowded Republican field seeking to succeed Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who announced earlier this year that he would not seek a third term, explained The Hill. Lindell’s defeat marked a rare setback for a Trump-endorsed candidate in a closely watched Republican primary.
Trump had better news in the state’s U.S. Senate contest, where Tafoya secured the party’s nomination after defeating a large field of candidates.
Among her opponents was Adam Schwarze, a former Navy SEAL and Marine who received the endorsement of the Republican Party of Minnesota at its state convention in Duluth in May. Republicans have not won a U.S. Senate election in Minnesota since Norm Coleman was elected in 2002.
Tafoya, a longtime sports broadcaster who announced her Senate campaign in January, has argued that Minnesota was “in a crisis.”
After voting Tuesday afternoon, she said: “I’m here to represent all Minnesotans. We’re going to do that; we’re going to fight for them.”
For years, I walked the sidelines when the stakes were the highest, and that job taught me how leadership really works.
I’m running for U.S. Senate to bring that experience to Washington and deliver the real results Minnesota deserves. pic.twitter.com/vDbHWpAXg9
— Michele Tafoya (@Michele_Tafoya) January 21, 2026
Her campaign has emphasized combating fraud, supporting law enforcement, reducing “costs and taxes” for middle-class families and restoring what it calls “courage and common sense” to government.
The gubernatorial race opened up after Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2024, abandoned his campaign for a third term amid scrutiny surrounding a sprawling fraud scandal in the state.
“I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work,” Walz said in January.
Republicans have argued that the scandal could give them an opening in a state that has remained reliably Democratic in statewide federal elections. Trump lost Minnesota by single-digit margins in each of his three presidential campaigns, although the Cook Political Report currently rates the gubernatorial race solidly Democratic.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Amy Klobuchar was expected to easily secure the party’s gubernatorial nomination.
Tuesday’s results therefore produced a split outcome for Trump and Minnesota Republicans: His preferred candidate for governor was defeated, while the party emerged with Tafoya as its nominee in a Senate race where Republicans will attempt to break a more than two-decade losing streak.
[READ MORE: FBI Went After Jeff Sessions Following Comey Firing]
