Minnesota’s Kendall Qualls’ running mate Brian Nicholson breached Capitol security barrier on Jan. 6

A report from last Friday by the Minnesota Star Tribune found that Brian Nicholson, the running mate for Kendall Qualls in Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary, breached a security perimeter at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Star Tribune’s Walker Orenstein and Jake Steinberg spotted Nicholson and his business partner Michael Hoagberg inside the Capitol’s perimeter both in a photo from the Washingtonian magazine and a video from the conservative social media platform Parler. The only way the two could have been on the Capitol grounds that day is if they entered through a barricade breach near the Peace Circle that was violently opened by rioters.

In response to the Star Tribune’s reporting, the businessman and first-time political candidate doubled down on his presence at the Donald Trump-influenced riot and said he has “no regrets” about it.

“I don’t apologize for being there,” Nicholson said in an X video posted to Qualls’ X account last Saturday. “There were a lot of questions about the results of the 2020 election, and I wanted to hear from, and show my support for, the greatest president of my lifetime.”

Another hit piece by the Star Tribune against my campaign. This is hit piece #4 with more on the way. Legacy media carries the water for the Democrat Party and they know that only this ticket would end the 20-year drought of the Republican Party capturing the Governor’s seat in… pic.twitter.com/nhQ5YDEyOH

— Kendall Qualls (@KendallQuallsMN) June 27, 2026

Qualls, an Army veteran, businessman and perennial candidate, also defended Nicholson in the video, saying he knew about his lieutenant governor pick’s presence at Jan. 6 riots when vetting him for the position and went ahead anyway.

“This article doesn’t come as a surprise at all,” Qualls said. “It wasn’t an issue for me then, and it’s not an issue for me now.”

Nicholson also claimed he and Hoagberg left the crowd of rioters — which would eventually breach the Capitol and lead to the deaths of seven people — “when things started getting crazy, when violence began.” This was disputed by Orenstein and Steinberg, who noted that Nicholson and Hoagberg were shown in the Parler video to be on the Capitol grounds during the same time when rioters were breaching the Capitol steps.

“At that point, the video shows rioters occupying bleachers for Biden’s inauguration, suggesting the duo were present after the Capitol steps and the building itself were breached by force and police had issued a call to disperse,” Orenstein and Steinberg wrote.

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Chair Richard Carlbom condemned Nicholson for praising the Jan. 6 rioters in a press release from last Friday, calling for the party and all the Republican gubernatorial candidates to disavow him.

“No one who embraces the January 6 rioters belongs anywhere near the governor’s office,” Carlbom said. “Any Republican candidate that refuses to disavow Brian Nicholson’s participation in the January 6 insurrection is wholly unfit to be governor.”

The Star Tribune’s report is the latest in a series of gaffes related to Nicholson since Qualls announced him as his running mate. After just two months on the campaign trail, a former senior employee of his filed a lawsuit against him, alleging financial misconduct and using company funds for personal items like concert tickets and vacations. And during the March press conference where Qualls introduced him, Nicholson was so coy about the basics of his background that he gave the wrong answer about his age.

For the Aug. 11 Republican primary, Qualls is facing state House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Qualls won the state GOP’s endorsement during last month’s state convention (in a notorious way), but both Demuth and Lindell have opted to continue to the primary rather than suspend their campaigns. The winner of that primary will likely face U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in November’s general election.

Minnesota gov candidate Kendall Qualls’ new running mate seemingly doesn’t know how old he is