Lisa Demuth

Demuth was born in Paynesville in Stearns County, Minnesota, in the rural district she would later represent, lived in Minneapolis from seventh through eleventh grade, and graduated from Bloomington Kennedy High School in 1985.⁠[1][2]

She is a small-business owner who manages commercial properties. From 1995 she served on the Paynesville Human Rights Commission.⁠[3][1]

In 2007, after a local newspaper article noted that her school board had more open seats than candidates, Demuth ran a write-in campaign and was elected to the ROCORI School District board in Cold Spring, serving until December 31, 2018.⁠[2][1]

After a call from longtime legislator Jeff Howe, Demuth was first elected to the Minnesota House from District 13A in 2018 and took office in 2019. She was assistant minority leader in the 92nd session (2021–2022), was elected House Republican leader in November 2022, and served as minority leader in the 93rd session (2023–2024).⁠[2][1]

During the 2023–2024 DFL trifecta she raised money and recruited candidates for House Republicans; in the 2024 election Republicans flipped three swing districts, producing a 67–67 tie in the House.⁠[3]

The 2025 session opened in dispute: Democrats boycotted for three weeks and won a case at the state Supreme Court, after which the two sides agreed to seat Rep. Brad Tabke and Demuth remained speaker for the full two-year session. She is Minnesota’s first Black House speaker and its first Republican woman speaker.⁠[3]

As speaker she used her caucus’s half of the House to end state-subsidized health insurance for undocumented adults and to block Democratic tax increases, while agreeing to some tax increases, including raising the cannabis tax from 10% to 15% and repealing the electricity sales tax exemption for data centers. Lawmakers passed a $66 billion budget after a one-day special session.⁠[3]

Demuth’s campaign website went live on November 2, 2025, and on November 3 she argued at a Capitol press conference that her record as the highest-ranking Republican in state government made her the best candidate. In her campaign video she said, “Let’s fire Tim Walz and take our state back.” She also said, “I have solid conservative values that really do cross party lines.”⁠[3]

She chose Ryan Wilson, an attorney and former small business owner, as her running mate for lieutenant governor; Wilson had lost the 2022 state auditor race to incumbent Julie Blaha.⁠[4]

In May 2026 Demuth lost the party endorsement after 10 rounds of voting at the state Republican convention and stayed in the race, pointing to voting irregularities at the convention. In the August 11 Republican primary she defeated MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who had Donald Trump’s endorsement, and Kendall Qualls, the state party’s endorsed candidate, to win the nomination.⁠[5][6]

She said, “We can’t afford more of the same.” She proposed cutting income taxes, ending taxes on Social Security for seniors and making the lieutenant governor a “fraud czar” targeting fraud in state agencies.⁠[5]

In the November 3 gubernatorial election Demuth lost to Democrat Amy Klobuchar; the Associated Press declared Klobuchar the winner that night. Had she won, she would have been Minnesota’s first Black governor. Her campaign had raised $3.6 million through mid-October.⁠[6][7]