Don’t sleep on the upcoming Republican National Committee chair campaign, says Mike Lindell.
The MyPillow CEO, whose cause célèbre in recent years has been casting doubt on the validity of election results, announced his candidacy for chair of the RNC Monday.
Lindell, who made the announcement on an online show hosted by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, said in an interview with CBS News that he was unsatisfied with the party’s performances in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections – in which the Republican Party failed to maintain or regain control of both houses of the federal legislature.
“You need a different input to get a different output. That’s business 101,” Lindell said.
The Minnesotan said if he got the job he’d approach it full-time, leaving behind the pillow business that made him famous. Lindell said he has not yet developed a campaign platform, but is first conducting “due diligence,” in part, he said, by trying to talk to all 168 voting members of the committee.
It’ll be a long process, Lindell said.
“One of them I talked to took four hours. They have a lot of concerns,” he said.
Lindell, an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, said he has not asked the 2024 presidential candidate for his endorsement.
“I didn’t call him on this,” Lindell said. “This is my deal and I would hope that I have his support, but that’s not going to dissuade me either way.”
Lindell was stopped by FBI agents outside a Hardee’s restaurant in Minnesota in September, and his cell phone was seized, under a subpoena authorized by a federal grand jury in Grand Junction, Colo. Lindell said at the time that agents asked him about Tina Peters, a Mesa County, Colorado clerk accused by state authorities of allowing an unauthorized person to break into the county’s election system. Lindell was released and has not been accused of wrongdoing. He later sued the Justice Department in an effort to recover his phone.
Lindell is broadly critical of current RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, who was elected in January 2017, and the national party apparatus, accusing them of turning “their back on our country” after Trump lost in 2020.
In the years since, Trump and his supporters have championed false claims to undermine the election results. Lindell criticized the party for its fundraising effort related to the election claims, which centered on conspiracy theories related to computerized vote tabulation.
“That’s not where the money’s going. I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Where’s the money going? I have brought it up many times and nobody seems to know,” Lindell said.
McDaniel has already secured the support of more than half of all the RNC voters, according to a letter, obtained by The Hill, which was signed by 101 of the committee’s members.
Will Lindell accept the results if he loses?
“That’s a pretty good question,” Lindell said. “If there’s any computer used, I would question any election which used a computer.”
