The Book of Ecclesiastes tells us, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
The best elected officials and servant leaders among us are those who serve for a season—not for a career. Those who focus on their loved ones and community, look around, evaluate the conditions, see a need for change, and say, “how can I help?” and then they do just that.
This is who Lisa Demuth is. She is first and foremost a person of deep Christian faith. She and her husband Nick raised four children in their community of Cold Spring. They are blessed to have seven grandchildren. They continue to be active in their community, where they have lived for more than 30 years—running a business, active in their church, and spending time with their family and friends in a state in which they were both born and raised.
Whenever a season to serve in a new capacity has called, Lisa Demuth has always responded with, “how can I help?”
Now, as the leading Republican candidate for governor, Lisa Demuth is asking for our help. Next weekend, at the Minnesota GOP’s state endorsing convention in Duluth, more than 2,000 grassroots Republicans will choose a candidate to go toe-to-toe with Amy Klobuchar and the Democrat Money Machine.
As it stands, Lisa is the most proven conservative Republican in this race to save our state. She has the record to prove it. And our campaign has the momentum and grassroots support that will be required to fuel Minnesota’s comeback this November.
The Demuth-Wilson campaign, which we launched in early November, has more cash on hand than all other Republican candidates, combined. We have grassroots support reflected in a big win in the statewide GOP caucus earlier this year, where more than 18,000 Republicans turned out.
Lisa has never lost a race—she’s run in seven races and won all seven races. And she has always sought and abided by the Republican endorsement. But it’s important for delegates and everyday Minnesotans to know Lisa is not a career politician, like Amy Klobuchar. When Klobuchar was scheming for her now 20-year career in Washington D.C., Lisa was raising kids, fighting breast cancer, leading mom’s groups and Bible studies and helping her husband Nick run a business.
After her kids survived a school shooting, Lisa stepped up and ran for her local school board and won. She served three terms. Her state representative tapped her on the shoulder and asked, “have you ever thought about representing our community in the legislature?” Lisa stepped up and said, “sure, how can I help?”
As a new Republican legislator in 2019, representing Greater Minnesota communities in her district, Lisa quickly observed the problems taking place in our state government. One of the first pieces of legislation she authored was a bill to combat fraud in daycares that received public assistance dollars. She fought for her conservative values and for fiscal responsibility in government, even when her Republican caucus was in the minority.
In 2022, I ran for state auditor. I made the decision to do so after a successful career building a Minnesota-based company that ran clinical trials for medical device companies, and becoming more involved in grassroots politics to help save our state during the disastrous reign of Tim Walz’s first term as governor. The top focus of my campaign was to utilize the Office of State Auditor to shine a light on the fraud and deception that was taking place in our state, under the leadership of Tim Walz. That November we nearly pulled off the upset of the election cycle. I narrowly lost to a deeply-entrenched DFL incumbent, Julie Blaha, by 0.34 percent. Just 8,000 votes from becoming the first Republican to win a statewide constitutional office since 2006. But the top of the ticket matters, and I couldn’t outrun the top of the ticket who lost by more than 7 percent.
The fallout from that 2022 midterm election was not good for Minnesota. Tim Walz and his radical DFL allies in the legislature had total control of government. Republicans in both the state House and state Senate were reeling. Lisa Demuth, who had earned another term representing her community, addressed her colleagues, and said, “I’m ready to fight, how can I help?”
Lisa’s colleagues elected her to serve as House Minority Leader. She and her fellow Republicans stood shoulder-to-shoulder in opposing the DFL “trifecta” agenda that spent an historic $18 billion surplus down to zero, raised taxes on hardworking Minnesotans by another $10 billion and increased the state budget by nearly 40 percent.
Then Lisa got to work on ending Democrats’ total control of our statement government. She led the charge by fundraising record amounts for the House and recruiting quality candidates across the state. She ended the Democrat “trifecta” in 2024. In that election, Republicans held onto every House seat and flipped two seats that had been held by Democrats for decades. On the Iron Range, Republican Cal Warwas, a steelworker, won a seat that Democrats held for more than 90 years. In Winona, Aaron Repinski, a riverboat captain and city council member, won a seat that had been held by the DFL for nearly 40 years.
Lisa was elected Speaker of the House in 2025, and she got to work on combatting the Walz era of rampant fraud and oppressively high taxes and spending.
Lisa led the charge to create the first ever Fraud Prevention and Agency Oversight Committee, which has held Walz’s feet to the fire for the last two legislative sessions by shining a spotlight on the waste, fraud and abuse of our tax dollars. And with just a 67-67 tie in the House, and a one-seat Democrat majority in the Senate, Lisa was able to walk out of negotiations with Walz and the Democrats in 2025 that resulted in a $5 billion reduction in the state budget, a repeal of free healthcare for illegal aliens in Minnesota, and much more.
With Lisa Demuth as House Speaker, Republicans have stopped a slew of new tax increases Democrats have pushed for regularly. Lisa has led her Republican colleagues in holding the line on numerous gun control bills that Walz and radical Democrats have tried—and failed—to push on law-abiding Minnesotans. Lisa has also led the charge for passage this session of transformational welfare reform in our state, which mirrors strides made on the federal level by President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” by adding work requirements.
Time and time again, Lisa Demuth has stepped up to serve her community, and asked, “How can I help?”
Every so often, we are blessed with a once-in-a-generation candidate who can not only win, but lead us to a better, stronger place than we’ve ever been before.
Lisa Demuth is that candidate.
I am privileged on this campaign, as her running mate, to see how Lisa Demuth seizes every day with optimism, integrity and energy. We both love this state. We have the plan, we have the leadership experience, and we have the conservative principles to win this race for Minnesota and engineer our great comeback.
Lisa and I are asking for your support at the Minnesota GOP endorsing convention in Duluth. We will abide by the endorsement of the delegates. And if we receive that endorsement, know that we will run this race to win and save the state we call home.
Ryan Wilson is the lieutenant governor running mate to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth. Ryan is a former business owner, attorney and conservative who was recently the chairman of the America First Policy Institute’s Minnesota chapter, and served as president of the Freedom Club. He and his wife Janelle have five children and reside in Maple Grove.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not represent an official position of Alpha News.
Ryan Wilson
Ryan Wilson is the lieutenant governor running mate to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth.
