MyPillow founder Mike Lindell said he would appeal his loss in Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary to the U.S. Supreme Court after the state’s top court rejected his recount bid.
“My name was on 1,100,000 ballots and they all need to be looked at and counted,” he told the St. Paul TV station KTSP on Saturday. He told NBC News that he would appeal the Minnesota Supreme Court ruling no matter the cost.
That court earlier Saturday denied Lindell’s petition for a recount in the primary for governor, which he lost to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth by some 45,000 votes.
Lindell, who had been endorsed by President Donald Trump, had said he would independently pay the full costs of a recount, estimated at $825,000, but he did not pay by the state’s deadline. He said he was refusing after learning the audit would have examined only those ballots cast for him or Demuth, and not the other primary candidates.
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In the six-page decision issued Saturday night, Minnesota Chief Justice Natalie Hudson wrote that Lindell’s claim “fails on the merits.”
Hudson said the Minnesota secretary of state’s office had provided a recount plan that is lawful and that does not commit “any wrongful act, omission, or error,” refuting Lindell’s claim.
Lindell filed a lawsuit last week against the Minnesota State Canvassing Board and Steve Simon, the state’s top election official. Lindell has spread widely debunked claims of election fraud, including that Trump won the 2020 election, and previously faced a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
In his own bid for elected office this year, he began questioning incoming predictions on election night, saying about The Associated Press race calls, “What is the AP to voters? Why would I listen to the AP?”
Demuth will face Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November for the governor’s office.
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