Lindell Says He’ll Pay For Recount After Losing Minnesota Race—As Trump Stays Silent

BreakingBusinessLindell Says He’ll Pay For Recount After Losing Minnesota Race—As Trump Stays SilentBySara Dorn,Forbes Staff. Sara Dorn is a Forbes news reporter who covers politics.Follow AuthorAug 20, 2026, 02:20pm EDTToplineMyPillow founder Mike Lindell said he would pay for a recount of the Minnesota gubernatorial GOP primary he lost last week by 11 percentage points—despite years of financial troubles from his false claims of voting machine errors in the 2020 election.Mike Lindell, Republican candidate for Minnesota governor, speaks during a Minnesota Governor Candidate Forum.Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.Key FactsLindell, who refused to concede last week after losing to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, told NBC News on Thursday he would request a recount in the Aug. 11 election and suggested he would pay the $825,000 cost for an audit and said he’s urging his supporters to help him fund the effort.He predicted costs for a recount could ultimately reach “upwards of $1 million,” according to NBC News.Lindell, who stepped down as head of MyPillow to run for governor, told the network he has a team of investigators looking at the results and they have already found some “irregularities.”Lindell has said previously he went broke defending himself in multiple defamation cases filed by voting machine companies for pushing false claims that they engineered the 2020 presidential election to defeat President Donald Trump. He owes Smartmatic USA Corp. voting machine company a $56,369 judgment, plus the $500 daily late penalties, and told NBC News he doesn’t intend to pay. He was also ordered to pay a $2.3 million judgment in June last year for defaming former Dominion voting machine company executive Eric Coomer, and as of July, he owed about $48,000 in late property taxes, the Minnesota Reformer reported.SURPRISING FACTTrump, who wrote on Truth Social ahead of the primary that Lindell “deserves a BIG WIN IN MINNESOTA,” hasn’t commented pub...