Mike Lindell recount bid in GOP governor primary loss denied by Minnesota's highest court

Mike Lindell lost the primary by a lot, not by a little, and that distinction matters. Minnesota's Supreme Court didn't just deny his recount request, it closed the door on a lawsuit that never had the math to justify itself in the first place. Recounts exist for razor-thin margins, not for candidates who came up short and want a second look anyway.

We've said before that election skepticism, applied selectively and without evidence, does real damage to the cause of actually fixing the parts of our voting system that need fixing. Lindell has spent years positioning himself as a crusader for election integrity. Fine. But if every loss triggers a lawsuit regardless of the numbers, you're not running an integrity campaign, you're running a grievance campaign, and voters can tell the difference even if the candidate can't.

The Republican Party in Minnesota has bigger problems than Mike Lindell's bruised ego. It needs candidates who can win a general election in a state that hasn't gone red for president since 1972, not litigants who turn every primary defeat into a courtroom rerun. Every cycle spent relitigating settled results is a cycle not spent building the case for why voters should trust Republicans with the governor's office at all.

None of this means courts always get it right or that recount laws are perfect. They're not. But a lopsided primary loss isn't the hill to make that argument on, and Minnesota's highest court, appropriately, wasn't buying it.