House Speaker Lisa Demuth, the top Republican in the Minnesota Legislature, announced her campaign Sunday for the GOP nomination for governor to challenge incumbent Democrat Gov. Tim Walz.
Walz is seeking what would be an unprecedented third four-year term in the state. But if she were to triumph next fall, Demuth would make history of her own by becoming the first woman and first person of color to be governor in a state where Republicans have not won statewide office in nearly 20 years.
First she will need to successfully make her case to her party to choose her from a crowded field that includes the 2022 GOP nominee Dr. Scott Jensen, U.S. Army veteran and business owner Kendall Qualls and Rep. Kristin Robbins, chair of the House anti-fraud committee.
“I believe that we’ll be able to build a better and a stronger Minnesota here together. Businesses need to be able to succeed in what they’re doing and to be able to grow here in our state, families should be able to thrive. Our kids deserve an excellent education, and all Minnesotans need to be able to succeed,” Demuth told WCCO in an interview ahead of her campaign launch.
She will have to prove to voters she is right for the job and overcome some big hurdles: 2026 is a midterm year that traditionally means political headwinds for the party that’s in power in Washington and Walz, who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024, has become a fundraising powerhouse and is a well-known incumbent.
But Demuth believes her work in the Legislature, most recently as House Speaker presiding over a tied chamber in a divided government, gives her an edge and appeals to a broad coalition of voters.
She worked with Walz and DFL leaders in the Legislature to find a compromise and pass a two-year state budget earlier this year.
“I know I’m the strongest candidate to take on Gov. Walz by my track record as Speaker of the House, I have been the only one of the Republican candidates that have sat across the table from Gov. Walz and negotiated in really trying times,” Demuth said. “I have respect for the office that Gov. Walz serves in, but I know I’m the best one to run for governor because I’m willing to get rid of all of the negative rhetoric and I’ve proven that I can work across party lines in a collaborative and bipartisan fashion, and Minnesotans are ready for that.”
Demuth announced her campaign in a video online, criticizing Walz as “dividing Minnesotans to cover up his failures and” and claiming that he “hates us.”
In a statement, DFL Party Chair Richard Carlbom criticized her record in the Legislature, like voting against policies like paid family leave and free school meals for children. He said she would “protect hedge funds over health care.”
“As Speaker, she’s shown Minnesota exactly what she’ll prioritize. She’ll cut taxes for massive corporations while cutting funding for schools and seniors. She’ll protect tax loopholes for her donors while opposing relief for workers and middle-class families,” Carlborn said. “Lisa Demuth is the corporate candidate in this race. If Lisa Demuth and the billionaires win, Minnesotans lose.”
From a small town to speaker of the Minnesota House
Demuth grew up in Paynesville before moving closer to the Twin Cities metro as a child to flee what she described as discrimination her family faced. She said being a biracial child — her father is Black and her mother is White — in the 1960s was a formative experience for her.
“That was really challenging because even though it was legal for my parents to be married here in the state of Minnesota, it wasn’t legal in all parts of the country at that time — later that year — but not at that time,” she told WCCO. “So I came from a really humble, hard-working background, so I can relate to a lot of things that Minnesotans are facing.”
But her identity, she admits, is not something she often makes the centerpiece of her story. She made history earlier this year when she became the first Black woman to be speaker of the Minnesota House.
“If I am the right person for the job at the right time, then choose me. But if you’re going to do it just because of me being the first woman, you know, if I’m elected as governor, the first female governor, the first person of color to be elected as governor here in the state of Minnesota — make sure I can do the job, and that’s what I am here to prove,” she told WCCO.
WCCO 
She said she knows, though, the significance of her being in the role she’s in and what it would mean to be elected governor.
“It’s just part of the story that I don’t lead with, but it’s part of the story, and I just want to make things better for all of us, but especially maybe those young, little mixed girls that don’t really know where they fit. I can carve that path for them and show you can do this. You can absolutely do this,” she said. “For people that don’t identify the same as me, I still want the best for them, and you can be successful in your life here.”
Before her ascent to speaker, which was part of a power-sharing deal in a tied House, Demuth served as GOP minority leader when Democrats had total control of the Legislature and the governor’s office in 2023 to 2024 — a transformative two years for the state in which Democrats successfully approved several progressive policies. She served on her local school board for 11 years before being elected to the Legislature in 2018, and she and her husband have four children and seven grandchildren.
Demuth will seek President Donald Trump’s endorsement
But before there can be a choice next fall between Demuth and Walz, she first has to win her own party’s nomination. The endorsement of President Trump would give any Republican candidate a boost with the party’s grassroots base that strongly supports him.
She didn’t hesitate when asked if she would seek his support.
“I think President Trump has done a great job delivering on the promises that he made when he was campaigning for his second term, and I think it is important to have that endorsement, so I will definitely be seeking that,” she said.
When asked if she thinks his endorsement would hurt her with more moderate voters in a state where Mr. Trump has lost three times, she said she believes voters will view her as an individual when making their choice.
“I think Minnesota voters are going to look at my record and what I stand for and how I can lead our state, and I think that is the way that people are going to choose to vote,” she said.
The Minnesota Republican Party has traditionally put a lot of stock in its own party endorsement process in which several hundred of the party faithful choose the nominee during their convention. The goal is to clear the field before the official state primary and block a prolonged intraparty fight for several more months.
But some candidates have suggested they would still run in the primary, regardless of the results. Demuth said she intends to seek that endorsement and abide by it.
“I’ve been endorsed in every one of my races for the legislature, and I’m honored and proud of that record,” she said. “The thing that’s most disappointing to me is there are candidates already in the field that said they’re going to bypass that process and go straight to a primary.”
Amy Koch, former GOP Senate majority leader, told WCCO before it was clear that Demuth would run that she would be the strongest candidate for Republicans hoping to have one of their own in the governor’s office for the first time since Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s re-election in 2006.
“She’s got the tested ability to raise a lot of money. She’s an incredibly attractive candidate,” Koch said in an interview in September. “I’ve seen her over the last year as speaker just become all the stronger. She really has a great way of presenting Republican ideas in a way that it’s very relatable.”
Campaign and legislative session to collide
While the gubernatorial campaign heats up, Demuth and Walz will be forced to work together again in early 2026 when the Legislature returns for the next legislative session.
They’ve also had several meetings alongside other legislative leaders in the interim as they tried to find a deal for a special session in response to the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting.
Demuth doesn’t think Walz, now a political opponent, will impact her ability to lead her caucus, work with Democrats in both chambers and the governor to find policy and supplemental budget compromises that divided government demands.
“Just like the governor is currently our governor and running for re-election, all the constitutional offices are open, and then both chambers — the entire House and the entire Senate here in Minnesota — are up for election,” she said. “So as legislators, as we’re doing our job we have to keep our job in front of us, first representing our constituents. That’s what I have been elected to do at this point, and still getting the work done for the state of Minnesota. And then we campaign outside of that. And I think that is easy.”
February’s session will be the first since the political shooting attacks in June that wounded DFL Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette and killed DFL Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark sent shockwaves throughout the state and Legislature, where lawmakers condemned political violence and many of them vowed to disagree more agreeably to tone down the rhetoric.
Demuth said she hopes that tragedy changes how people campaign this cycle.
“We have an individual and personal responsibility to lead with excellence, and that means getting rid of the negative political rhetoric,” she said. “We can attack all day on policies or things that are being done in the work, but it never should become personal.”
0 Comments