Mike Lindell’s Texas voter registration has thrown his Minnesota gubernatorial bid into question—reviving memories of a decades-old controversy over a state official who ran Florida rib joints from afar.
The revelation that MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, the polling leader in the Republican gubernatorial primary, is registered to vote in Texas rather than Minnesota raises concerns about both his eligibility and his electability.
It also recalls another imbroglio, decades ago on the DFL side of the aisle, involving a Minnesota constitutional officer whose presence in the state became a matter of considerable controversy.
Lindell’s Minnesota Problem
Lindell, as is well known, created MyPillow, which operates out of Shakopee after previously being located in Chaska. His history is well documented, as are his travails as the company’s head.
His role as the vanguard of Donald Trump’s election-denial movement thrust him into the political forefront while his business suffered substantial financial losses. Despite those difficulties, Lindell now leads his principal Republican opponents: Kendall Qualls, the party-endorsed candidate, and Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth.
A late-July KSTP/SurveyUSA poll placed Lindell at 35%, compared with 26% for Demuth and 11% for Qualls. He also received a considerable boost in mid-July, less than a month before the August 11 primary, when President Trump endorsed him.
But the disclosure that Lindell was not registered to vote in Minnesota and instead maintained an active registration in Texas, where he lived during 2024, created a commotion, particularly within established Republican ranks.
Lindell is not legally required to be a registered Minnesota voter merely to run for governor. Registration and eligibility are not synonymous. Minnesota permits qualified residents to register on Election Day.
The applicable requirements are spread across the Minnesota Constitution and the state’s candidate-filing statute:
- Voter eligibility: A candidate must be eligible to vote in Minnesota.
- Age: A gubernatorial candidate must be at least 25 years old upon assuming office.
- Residency: The candidate must have been a bona fide Minnesota resident for at least one year immediately preceding the general election.
- Citizenship: The candidate must be a United States citizen.
The age requirement presents no difficulty for Lindell, who is 65.
The residency requirement is the more pertinent issue. Lindell lived in Texas in 2024 and retained an active voter registration there. He has said that he subsequently returned to Minnesota, obtained a Minnesota driver’s license and has lived in the state for more than a year.
“I’m a resident for over a year and a half, back in Minnesota. I’m qualified to run for governor.”
Whether the available evidence confirms that assertion is a different matter. Lindell’s Republican opponents undoubtedly will scrutinize it, and, should he prevail in the primary, Democrats will be pleased to continue the inquiry.
The public record does not presently establish that his Texas registration automatically disqualifies him. It does, however, furnish political ammunition against a candidate who has made voter registration and election integrity central features of his public persona.
The Mattson Matter
The confusion swirling around the current gubernatorial candidate recalls the travails of an actual state constitutional officer who ran into trouble because he was not spending enough time in Minnesota.
The official was Robert W. Mattson Jr., an Iron Ranger from Virginia who served as Minnesota state auditor from 1975 to 1979 and state treasurer from 1983 to 1987.
An Iron Range Political Pedigree
A DFLer and the son of a Minnesota attorney general, Mattson’s story is crisscrossed with six degrees of separation involving DFLers and Republicans alike.
His father, Robert W. Mattson Sr., was also a native of Virginia on the Iron Range. The family later lived in Bloomington, where the younger Mattson attended high school before graduating from Harvard University and obtaining a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law, now Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul.
The elder Mattson served for approximately two years as attorney general after Gov. Karl Rolvaag appointed him to replace Walter Mondale. Mondale had left the office when Rolvaag appointed him to the United States Senate seat vacated by Hubert Humphrey, who became vice president under Lyndon Johnson in 1965.
The younger Mattson, a DFLer like his father, was elected state auditor at age 26, becoming the second-youngest person to attain statewide constitutional office in Minnesota. He won during the DFL sweep of 1974 and served one term before losing his 1978 reelection bid in a Republican surge to Minneapolis City Council member Arne Carlson.
Remote Ribs Before Zoom
Mattson returned to politics four years later, running for a different constitutional office. He was elected state treasurer in 1982 as Rudy Perpich, another Iron Ranger, led the DFL back to victory.
During his political wilderness years, Mattson and Florida native Marsha Gibbs had opened Michelbob’s Championship Ribs in Naples, Florida, followed by a takeout location on nearby Marco Island. The establishments became popular with local residents, tourists and the many Minnesota expatriates and snowbirds who frequent southwest Florida.
(Conflict alert: The writer is one of those occasional Naples snowbirds but has never visited either establishment.)
Those rib joints became the catalyst for the brouhaha that arose during Mattson’s term as treasurer. It was revealed that he was spending considerable time and effort operating the restaurants while simultaneously holding elective office in Minnesota.
In effect, Mattson became a pioneer in remote work long before either the concept or the Zoom technology that facilitates it had been conceived.
“Where’s Bob?”
Mattson’s absence from his office soon was exposed. The controversy led to recurring cries of “Where’s Bob?”—not to be confused with the 1991 movie What About Bob?, the Richard Dreyfuss-Bill Murray comedy about the feisty relationship between a psychiatrist played by Dreyfuss and an excessively clingy and obtrusive patient portrayed by Murray.
Mattson was subjected to considerable ribbing for devoting so much time to his joints. He struck back by asserting that there was not much for a state treasurer to do and called for consolidation of the office with those of the state auditor and secretary of state.
The Legislature responded in 1985 by transferring most of the treasurer’s responsibilities to the Department of Finance. Nine employees were transferred, seven and one-half positions were abolished, and Mattson was left with three full-time employees and one part-time employee.
Mattson and his diminished staff then moved out of the Capitol complex and into rented space in the lower level of a duplex on Grand Avenue in St. Paul.
The legislative action went beyond merely bruising Mattson’s political standing. It provoked a significant constitutional confrontation.
The Treasurer’s “Empty Shell”
Mattson challenged the Legislature’s action, arguing that lawmakers had effectively abolished a constitutional office without asking the voters to amend the state Constitution.
In 1986, the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed with him in State ex rel. Mattson v. Kiedrowski.
“There is little doubt that the Office of State Treasurer now stands as an empty shell.”
The court held that although the Legislature could modify the treasurer’s duties, it could not strip the office of all its independent core functions. The transferred duties, personnel and appropriations were ordered returned.
Mattson therefore won the constitutional battle, although his political difficulties continued. He served out his term and did not seek reelection in 1986. Another DFLer, Michael McGrath, succeeded him.
Voters Finish What the Legislature Started
In 1998—16 years after Mattson was elected treasurer—Minnesota voters approved a constitutional amendment abolishing the office. The abolition took effect in January 2003.
The vote provided Mattson with a delayed measure of vindication: Minnesota eventually adopted through constitutional means essentially the structural change he had advocated.
The offices of state auditor and secretary of state continue to exist. They are now held by DFLers Julie Blaha and Steve Simon, respectively. The auditor oversees local-government financial activity, while the secretary of state administers Minnesota’s elections and business-registration systems.
Mattson left elective politics and continued his business ventures. In addition to the two Michelbob’s locations in southwest Florida, he has owned and operated Cochrane Air Service, which provides flights to fishing and hunting destinations, resorts and sightseeing locations in northern Ontario.
The man who defeated Mattson for auditor in 1978, Arne Carlson, went on to defeat Mattson’s fellow Iron Ranger Rudy Perpich in the 1990 gubernatorial election and served two terms as governor.
Carlson, now 91, remains active in public affairs and environmental issues. Long independent of his former Republican Party, he recently endorsed Rochester Democrat Jake Johnson in Minnesota’s First Congressional District race against Republican incumbent Brad Finstad.
Two Absences, Two Different Questions
The Mattson saga involved an elected constitutional officer spending substantial time conducting private business outside Minnesota while serving in public office.
The Lindell matter involves a candidate who lived and remained registered to vote outside Minnesota before seeking the state’s highest office.
The two circumstances are not legally identical. Mattson’s controversy concerned the performance of his duties and ultimately produced a significant Minnesota Supreme Court decision. Lindell’s controversy concerns whether his asserted return to Minnesota satisfies the statutory and constitutional requirements for candidacy.
Mattson’s remote ribs produced a great deal of political comedy, but the Legislature’s attempted dismantling of his office raised a genuine constitutional issue.
Lindell’s residency elsewhere may also invite ribbing. For his candidacy, however, it is no laughing matter.
