Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth seeks Trump’s endorsement in bid to unseat Gov. Tim Walz

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The top Republican in Minnesota state government, House Speaker Lisa Demuth, said Monday she hopes to win President Donald Trump’s endorsement in her bid to deny a third term to Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Demuth kicked off her campaign at the state Capitol, where she became speaker under a power-sharing deal after the 2024 elections left the House tied at 67-67 and forced both parties to work together. She said she proved in the last legislative session that she was a strong conservative leader who could also navigate the challenges of working with Walz and other Democrats in a narrowly divided government.

“I have solid, conservative values that really do cross party lines,” Demuth said at a news conference. “It’s not just Republican values. They’re conservative values that are supported by many Minnesotans. If … President Trump would choose to give me his endorsement. I would definitely welcome that.”

White House officials did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on her chances of getting the president’s support. The Republican National Committee referred an inquiry to the White House. But Democrats were quick to tie Demuth to Trump.

“Fiercely aligned with Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda, a Lisa Demuth governorship would be disastrous for Minnesota,” the Walz campaign said in a fundraising mail to supporters.

Demuth and other Republicans in the race face a major hurdle: no Republican has won election to statewide office in Minnesota since 2006. But Walz faces a historical challenge of his own: no Minnesota governor has ever won a third consecutive four-year term.

Walz, who launched his reelection campaign in September, has repeatedly clashed with the Trump administration over a wide variety of issues, from his immigration crackdown to the impacts of the federal government shutdown.

Asked what she admires about Trump, Demuth said the president has delivered on his promise of safer borders.

Demuth has already come under criticism from some Republicans who say she has been too ready to compromise. She negotiated a power-sharing agreement for the 2025 legislative session with the top House Democrat, former Speaker Melissa Hortman, that ended a boycott by Democrats and led to a budget deal that included spending cuts and tax increases. She said they “worked very well in the most contentious of times.”

The speaker said Minnesota and the country are now in a “much different space” than before Hortman and her husband were assassinated in June by a gunman posing as a police officer.

“Political violence has no place in Minnesota. It has no place in our country,” Demuth said. “And it takes leaders from the very top that tone down the negative rhetoric against each other and find ways to work together, even when we disagree.”

If elected, Demuth would be Minnesota’s first female and first Black governor. But she played that down, just as she normally did when she became the state’s first House speaker of color.

“I will be the best person to serve as governor in the state of Minnesota,” Demuth said. “The things that might be historic that we’ve seen over time, typically, I don’t focus on those, but that’s part of my story, that’s part of who I am.”

Republicans in the race also include Rep. Kristin Robbins, who chairs a fraud-fighting committee formed as part of the power-sharing deal; former business executive Kendall Qualls, who also hopes to become Minnesota’s first Black governor; and the party’s 2022 candidate, physician and former state senator Scott Jensen. Mike Lindell, the fervent Trump supporter known to TV viewers as the “MyPillow Guy,” has said he’s seriously considering a run.