MyPillow founder Mike Lindell spent majority of campaign funds buying his own book

MyPillow founder Mike Lindell raised about $356,000 in his campaign to become Minnesota’s next governor and spent more than half of it buying his own book.

Three book purchases, totaling roughly $187,000, account for 68% of Mike Lindell for Governor’s spending, according to 2025 campaign finance records filed in St. Paul last week. The money was paid to Lindell’s for-profit company.

Lindell, an evangelical Christian who became famous for his fervent support for false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from President Donald Trump, is handing out copies of his self-published memoir.

“Everyone’s just giving out a little flyer,” the candidate told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Well, here’s my autobiography.”

Lindell estimated the campaign purchased 25,000 to 30,000 copies of his self-published book, “What Are the Odds?” The book tells the story of the MyPillow founder’s struggles with drug and gambling addictions and his surrender to God in 2009. The third and final section of the book is titled “Jesus.”

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Lindell says he was cured of addiction by divine intervention and that God inspired him to invent a new kind of pillow, which is stuffed with interlocking chunks of foam and priced at around $50.

The suburban Minneapolis company has sold more than 40 million of Lindell’s pillows, mostly through television infomercials. In 2019, Liberty University’s business school dean Dave Bratt called Lindell “one of the greatest Christian businessmen on the planet.”

The forward to Lindell’s autobiography, written by surgeon and former presidential candidate Ben Carson, makes a similar claim. Carson describes Lindell as a divinely gifted marketer and entrepreneur, with a moving personal story, “inspiring us all.”

When Lindell announced his candidacy for Minnesota governor in December, he promised to reach everyone, campaigning in every town in the state.

The campaign’s second-largest purchase was the red, white and blue advertisement wrap for an RV. The wrap showed Lindell carrying an American flag and his slogan, “I’ll stand for you.” It cost about $26,000. Mike Lindell for Governor spent an additional $2,000 to rent the vehicle.

Campaign records show Lindell received donations from more than 250 people across the country, most of them retirees.

Using donor money to buy a candidate’s own book is not illegal, Jeff Sigurdson, executive director of the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, told the Star Tribune.

Minnesota’s Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board reviewed state law in 1998 and concluded that a campaign may pay to publish a book.

Advisory opinions are highly fact-specific, though, and what Lindell did is slightly different. It appears Lindell’s campaign bought copies of his book from MyPillow, paying about $7 per copy—around half the retail price.

The amount of money Lindell’s campaign spent on his autobiography is unusual too. None of the other candidates in the Minnesota governor’s race have made similar purchases.

The largest campaign expense for former health care CEO Kendall Qualls, winner of the Minnesota Republican Party’s gubernatorial straw poll in December, was direct mail. That cost the campaign around $77,000. Qualls spent another $10,000 on print.

Republican Patrick Knight, another businessman, also spent $10,000 producing flyers. Kristin Robbins, who rose to prominence in the state house as chair of the fraud prevention committee, spent $45,000 on media production, about one quarter of her total campaign spending.

The largest campaign expense for state house speaker Lisa DeMuth, Minnesota’s top elected Republican, was digital consulting. That cost to the campaign was $16,000, slightly more than a third of its total spending for 2025.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who dropped out of the race last month, spent 46% of his $2.7 million campaign budget on digital fundraising.

None of the other candidates appear to have made major purchases from themselves.

The Lindell campaign’s focus on buying the candidate’s book has raised eyebrows in Minnesota. David Tinjum, a satirical columnist for the Minneapolis Times, mocked the CEO for running a con job on himself.

“Usually, a grifter has to find a mark, build trust, and then execute the sting,” Tinjum wrote, quoting a made-up expert. “Lindell managed to do all three during a single shave in his bathroom mirror.”

The campaign spending also raised concerns for Smartmatic, a London-based elections technology company. A federal court ruled in March 2025 that Lindell defamed Smartmatic with 51 false claims that the company was part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election.

The court concluded there was “no reasonable trier of fact” supporting Lindell’s conspiracy theories.

The MyPillow founder said at the time that the ruling was “bizarre.” He called Smartmatic an evil company and vowed he would keep fighting until its voting machines were “melted down and turned into prison bars.”

Lindell counter sued, but his claims were dismissed as frivolous and he was ordered to cover Smartmatic’s legal defense. In 2025, the court sanctioned Lindell $56,000 for failing to pay.

He still hasn’t paid Smartmatic’s legal fees, court records show. Lindell told a federal judge in December that his financial situation is so dire, he can’t be expected to make $5,000 monthly payments.

The Trump-appointed judge noted that Lindell hasn’t provided evidence of his poverty. In January, the judge warned Lindell that if he doesn’t provide adequate documentation of his financial situation, he will face further sanctions for contempt of court.

Smartmatic’s attorneys say Lindell is lying. They provided the court evidence that Lindell has raised more than $570,000 through two legal defense funds and $272,000 for his campaign, most of which he spent on his own books.

“Smartmatic respectfully requests that the Court find Mr. Lindell in civil contempt,” the company’s attorney wrote on Feb. 2, “and impose a remedy to coerce compliance, including but not limited to a daily penalty until full payment.”

As the court weighs its decision, the Minnesota gubernatorial campaign continues. The Republican primary is scheduled for August 11.

Donald Trump has not directly endorsed Lindell, but praised him for his unwavering support and said Lindell “deserves to be governor.”

Trump mentioned Lindell in a speech at a rally in December, asking his supporters, “Do we like Lindell?” The crowd cheered and applauded.

But an Emerson College poll released this week found that most Minnesota voters don’t like Lindell: 52% say they have an unfavorable opinion. The state is about 33% Republican, but in a head-to-head race against Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, only 30% of Minnesotans said they would vote for the MyPillow founder.

Daniel Silliman is senior reporter/editor at The Roys Report. He began his two decades in journalism covering crime in Atlanta and has since led major investigations into abuse and misconduct in Christian contexts. Daniel and his wife live in Johnson City, Tennessee.