Minnesota Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth announced a bid for governor on Sunday, Nov. 2, joining a crowded race for Republicans looking to beat Gov. Tim Walz.
She joins her colleague Rep. Kristin Robbins, of Maple Grove, and two former gubernatorial candidates, Scott Jensen and Kendall Qualls. Demuth said she’s the best candidate to take on Walz in 2026 because she’s the only one who has “sat across the table from him.”
Demuth spent hours in the negotiating room with Walz in the 2025 session, vying for House Republicans’ priorities in the state’s two-year budget. The House landing in a tie after the 2024 elections offered a seat at the table to Republicans that was not afforded during the DFL trifecta.
“I have already had the opportunity to negotiate with him — with the tie, and serving as speaker — I’m the only one of the Republican candidates that has sat across the table from him, and because of that work, we were able to deliver very good things for Minnesota,” Demuth told Forum News Service during a Friday interview.
Entrance to politics
Demuth, 58, of Cold Spring, started in public office as a ROCORI school board write-in candidate in 2007. She recalled that when she saw two spots unfilled for the local school board, she told her husband, “Hey, you’re going to need to run for the school board.” He told her, “I wouldn’t know how to do that. You do it.”
She was elected to the House in 2018. She became House minority leader in 2022 and, most recently, was elected speaker of the House in 2025.
Demuth said that, for her, it’s never been about “climbing a political ladder,” but about a “willingness to serve.”
She touted the $5 billion reduction in spending leaders passed in the 2025 session and a repeal of MinnesotaCare for undocumented immigrant adults. She said her track record of working across party lines in the 2025 session also sets her apart.
“That is also what has driven me to this point in the decision to run for governor,” she said.
“I have proved that I can pull people together. Because of the tie, former Speaker (Melissa) Hortman and I needed to navigate that,” Demuth added, recalling that Hortman referred to their partnership as “team House.” “But I’ve already had that proven track record, and that’s why I know Minnesota is ready for me to be governor.”
Attempting to make history
Demuth and Walz enter the race with something in common — both are attempting to make history.
Democrat Walz is hoping for a rare third term and the title of Minnesota’s longest-serving governor. Demuth would not only be Minnesota’s first female governor but also Minnesota’s first person of color and Black woman to serve in the role.
“The role that I am in as speaker, also leading my caucus, the work that I’ve done, it is because I have been qualified to do that job,” she said. “I would be the first female governor for the state of Minnesota. I would be the first Black woman or even person of color to be governor of the state of Minnesota. And those would both be historic things for our state. That is not why I’m doing this, though.”
Minnesota also hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office in two decades. Tim Pawlenty was elected governor in 2002 and won reelection in 2006.
Demuth thinks the state is ready.
“In 2024, Minnesotans sent a tie to the House of Representatives, and they were saying, ’Enough with the one-party, Democrat control. We want something different.’ And so I believe Minnesota is ready for a change in the leadership that we’ve seen,” she said.
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Demuth said Minnesotans can’t keep funding fraud. She also wants to address a “ballooned” state budget, an “unsustainable” amount of state employees, and lowering taxes.
“Under the current administration over the last seven years, I don’t feel that Minnesota is in a better place, and I want to get us back on the right track,” she said.
The primary election will be held Aug. 11, 2026. The general election will be Nov. 3, 2026.
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