Mike Lindell loses Minnesota primary, refuses to concede and alleges anomalies
Trump-backed MyPillow CEO claims voting irregularities after 10-point defeat to Lisa Demuth
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Photograph: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
What this story says
- Mike Lindell lost the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial primary to Lisa Demuth by a margin of 10 points, as reported by the Hindustan Times.
- Lindell is refusing to concede, alleging voting anomalies but offering no evidence, according to KSTP and the Independent.
- Donald Trump endorsed Lindell in the primary, but the defeat marks one of Trump’s biggest endorsement losses in the 2026 cycle, the Hindustan Times said.
- Lindell’s net worth is now estimated at $0 by Celebrity Net Worth, down from a prior estimate of $100-300 million, due to legal costs and lost retail partnerships.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 13 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 14 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
70/100
Craft
87/100
Hype
18/100
14 sources · methodology
Thin on the right so far
Only 2 of the 13 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and a prominent ally of Donald Trump, lost the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial primary on 11 August 2026. He was defeated by Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth. The margin was 10 points, according to the Hindustan Times. Trump had endorsed Lindell in the race, calling him someone who "deserves to be governor of Minnesota" and praising his loyalty to Trump’s claims about the 2020 election.
Lindell is refusing to concede the result. He claims there are "anomalies in the numbers" but has not provided evidence, as reported by KSTP’s Kirsten Swanson and cited by the Hindustan Times. The Independent noted that Lindell did not explain what the alleged anomalies were. No other outlet reported any irregularities in the vote count.
Lindell’s financial situation has drawn attention following the defeat. Celebrity Net Worth now estimates his net worth at $0, down from a previous estimate of $100-300 million. The Hindustan Times attributed the decline to legal expenses, lost retail partnerships, and the fallout from his election activism. Lindell himself said in a 2023 interview with CBS Minnesota that MyPillow lost more than $100 million in retail business after he promoted claims about the 2020 election. Major retailers, including Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Kohl’s, stopped carrying MyPillow products, according to the Hindustan Times.
What the coverage left out
No right-rated outlet ran this story at all. None of the digests from the left or centre mentioned that Lindell’s son Darren became CEO of MyPillow in 2020, a detail included in the Hindustan Times’ full report. The left-rated digests did not report Lindell’s net worth or the retailers that stopped carrying his products.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 4 times, most recently on 12 Aug 2026, 16:30, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
8 rated outlets
- Left-rated outlets agreed Mike Lindell lost the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial primary to Lisa Demuth by 10 points and refused to concede. All seven reports noted he alleged voting anomalies without providing evidence. Six digests stated the votes were fully counted before Lindell made his claims.
- The Independent and MPR News led on Lindell’s refusal to concede and his allegations of anomalies. USA Today and Common Dreams emphasised his loss margin and the completion of vote counting. Talking Points Memo and Mediaite focused on his history of election denialism. Crooks and Liars did not publish its own report on the primary result.
- The Independent’s digest noted Lindell did not explain the anomalies his team claimed to have found. MPR News quoted Lindell saying his team needed to "reconcile these numbers" before conceding. No other left-rated digest or report included his exact phrasing or detailed his team’s process.
Centre
3 rated outlets
- The three centre-rated reports all carried Lindell’s refusal to concede and his allegations of voting irregularities. The Hindustan Times, which published a full report, led on Lindell’s defeat as one of Trump’s biggest endorsement losses in the 2026 cycle. It also detailed his financial decline, his legal battles, and the retailers that stopped carrying MyPillow products. The digests from KTSM and Political Wire both noted Lindell’s refusal to concede but did not mention his financial situation or the retailers.
Right
2 rated outlets
We have not written our reading of the right coverage of this story. The right-rated outlets that ran it are listed below.
Read it at the source
14 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
8- Trump-backed Mike Lindell refuses to concede Minnesota election loss (opens USA Today in a new tab)
- Trump-Endorsed MyPillow Founder Mike Lindell Refuses to Concede After Losing Big in GOP Primary (opens Common Dreams in a new tab)
Common Dreams — is Common Dreams biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Following His Primary Loss, Lindell Has Questions About the Numbers (opens Talking Points Memo in a new tab)
Talking Points Memo — is Talking Points Memo biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Mike Lindell blames voting ‘anomalies’ on primary loss despite losing by 10 points (opens The Independent in a new tab)
The Independent — is The Independent biased? Our profile of this outlet
- MN Pillow Guy Goes Down in Flames, Despite Trump Endorsement and Favorable Polling — Refuses to Concede of Course (opens Daily Kos in a new tab)
Daily Kos — is Daily Kos biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- Mika Brzezinski Begs Joe Scarborough to ‘Stop’ as He Mocks Mike Lindell With Incendiary Combo of Pillow Puns and Toilet Humor (opens Mediaite in a new tab)
- Lindell Won't Concede After Getting Crushed In MN Primary (opens Crooks and Liars in a new tab)
Crooks and Liars — is Crooks and Liars biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Lindell says he needs to investigate votes that led to Demuth's win (opens MPR News in a new tab)
Centre
3- Lindell refuses to concede, alleges voting irregularities (opens KTSM in a new tab)
- Mike Lindell family, net worth: All on Trump backed-candidate ‘refusing’ to concede after losing Minnesota GOP primary (opens Hindustan Times in a new tab)
Hindustan Times — is Hindustan Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Mike Lindell Refuses to Concede (opens Political Wire in a new tab)
Political Wire — is Political Wire biased? Our profile of this outlet
Right
2- ‘I’m down by 20,000 votes with 277,000 left to count,’ Mike Lindell says, refusing to Concede Governor primary (opens ussanews.com in a new tab)
ussanews.com — is ussanews.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- MyPillow founder Mike Lindell refuses to concede in Minnesota’s GOP gubernatorial primary (opens Washington Times in a new tab)
Washington Times — is Washington Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
Not rated
1Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Mike Lindell loses Minnesota primary, refuses to concede and alleges…?
- Of the 13 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 62% are rated left, 23% are rated centre, 15% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 14. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Mike Lindell loses Minnesota primary, refuses to concede and alleges… left or right?
- Neither side dominates it. Of the 13 rated outlets on this story, 62% are rated left, 23% are rated centre, 15% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
- Is the coverage of Mike Lindell loses Minnesota primary, refuses to concede and alleges… biased?
- Mike Lindell loses Minnesota primary, refuses to concede and alleges anomalies is one event reported by 14 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Mike Lindell loses Minnesota primary, refuses to concede and alleges…?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Mike Lindell loses Minnesota primary, refuses to concede and alleges…?
- 14 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- How much did Mike Lindell lose the Minnesota primary by?
- Mike Lindell lost the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial primary to Lisa Demuth by 10 points, according to the Hindustan Times. The margin was reported as a clear defeat for the Trump-backed candidate.
- Why is Mike Lindell refusing to concede the primary?
- Lindell is refusing to concede, alleging voting anomalies in the primary results. He has not provided evidence for these claims, as noted by the Independent and KSTP’s Kirsten Swanson.
- What is Mike Lindell’s net worth now?
- Celebrity Net Worth estimates Mike Lindell’s net worth at $0, down from a prior estimate of $100-300 million. The decline is attributed to legal costs and lost retail partnerships, the Hindustan Times reported.
- Which retailers stopped carrying MyPillow products?
- Major retailers including Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Kohl’s stopped carrying MyPillow products after Lindell promoted claims about the 2020 election, according to the Hindustan Times.
How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
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