MN-GOV: Perennial candidate Kendall Qualls wins Minnesota GOP gubernatorial straw poll

Kendall Qualls, Army veteran, former health care executive and anti-anti-racist activist, won the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial straw poll on Saturday, beating House Speaker Lisa Demuth, MyPillow guy Mike Lindell and a long list of other names.

The poll of the party’s State Central Committee offers the first look at how the candidates in the 2026 governor’s race are positioned among roughly 300 of the party’s most engaged activists leading up to precinct caucuses on Feb. 3, which will begin the process of selecting the 2,300 delegates to the party’s all-important endorsement convention in May.

Qualls won votes from 93 delegates, followed by Demuth with 90 and Lindell with 49, according to the state party.

Much can change before the party convention, and candidates with weak showings in the straw poll have gone to win the MN GOP nomination. Former state Sen. Scott Jensen finished third in the first Republican straw poll but won the party endorsement in 2022. (Jensen, who is running again, finished seventh this year.)



https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/12/14/perennial-candidate-kendall-qualls-wins-minnesota-gop-gubernatorial-straw-poll/