Surry officials to hear from election conspiracy theorists, including 'My Pillow Guy' ahead of primaries

Despite widespread success for Republicans in Surry County elections, and a lack of evidence, local Republicans keep pushing unfounded claims of fraud.

Posted 7:28 p.m. May 13, 2022 — Updated 7:28 p.m. May 13, 2022

Travis Fain

, WRAL state government reporter

Commissioners in Surry County, where the county elections director says she’s been threatened by the local Republican Party chairman over conspiracy theories, are scheduled to hear Monday evening from Mike Lindell, the head of a pillow company who has become one of the country’s best known purveyors of false election claims.

North Carolina’s primary elections are Tuesday.

Lindell, the founder and chief executive of My Pillow Inc., will be joined by a half dozen others, according to the agenda, including David Clements, a former college professor fired by New Mexico State University for refusing COVID-19 mandates, and Douglas Frank, an Ohio teacher who has pushed debunked election fraud claims in a number of states, including North Carolina.

Their topic, according to the agenda: Election integrity.

State Board of Elections spokesman Pat Gannon said in a statement that it’s “unfortunate for Surry County voters that these individuals are being given a platform to continue to spread disinformation.” He said several of these speakers have been asked repeatedly to share evidence of election irregularities with the State Board or the law enforcement agency of their choice, "but have not provided any such evidence to authorities.”

Frank has previously visited Surry County, where every Republican running statewide got at least 69% of the vote in 2020. He and local GOP Chairman Keith Senter met with Surry County elections director Michella Huff in late March. Huff said they pressed her for more than an hour with election fraud theories and claims of fraudulent voters, without ever naming any voters.

The meeting was tense and full of false information, Huff said, and Senter allegedly threatened to have Huff fired. Since then, Huff has occasionally asked the local police department to have an officer in the parking lot as elections staff leave for the night, the police chief told WRAL News last month.

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Huff was working at an early voting site Friday, according to her office, and didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment. Senter hasn’t returned repeated messages from WRAL News.

A message for Lindell, sent through the media office at his company, also wasn’t returned Friday.

Lindell is a supporter of, and sometimes adviser to, former President Donald Trump. He has pushed to have the 2020 elections overturned with a number of unfounded claims that the vote was rigged.

Among other things, Lindell financed a documentary advancing debunked theories, and he started his own 24/7 internet streaming channel where, along with conspiracy theories, viewers can find steep discounts on the pillows his company produces.

It’s not clear who arranged to have Lindell speak at Monday evening’s commission meeting. Messages for the county’s five commissioners, all registered Republicans, went unreturned Friday.

“Elections officials across the country – with different political affiliations – have reviewed the conspiracy theories spread by these individuals, and they are not credible,” Gannon said in an email. “These individuals are doing nothing more than breeding distrust in our elections system, using absurd and baseless theories.”

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