Former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya launched a Senate campaign in Minnesota on Wednesday, giving Republicans a well-known candidate for a seat they see as a potential pickup opportunity.
Tafoya, who gained national attention as a sideline reporter covering NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” before becoming a conservative commentator, said in a launch video that she would fight corruption, lower costs and protect women’s sports if elected.
“I’m not going to stay on the sidelines any longer,” she said in the video. “It’s time for a political outsider and a reformer with a real plan for working families.”
Tafoya’s entrance into the race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith comes as Minnesota has been in the national spotlight in recent weeks. Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic nominee for vice president, reversed course this month and said he wouldn’t seek a third term after his leadership came under renewed scrutiny over a fraud scandal regarding state social services programs.
“I see massive government fraud exploding on Tim Walz’s watch, ripping off taxpayers and embarrassing our state,” Tafoya said in her video.
Protests have also broken out in Minneapolis over the presence of federal immigration enforcement agents in the city, resulting in the fatal shooting of Renee Good, followed by another shooting by an immigration agent last week.
The developments have left Republicans seeing an opening in Minnesota, where they haven’t won a statewide election since 2006. The GOP last won a Senate race in the North Star State in 2002, when Norm Coleman won his sole term. Tafoya on Wednesday immediately won the backing of National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott of South Carolina, who in a statement called her “the only candidate with the common-sense leadership Minnesotans are desperately craving.”
Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan are locked in a competitive primary for the Democratic nomination for Smith’s seat. Tafoya, meanwhile, joins a Republican field that includes former NBA player Royce White, the state’s 2024 Senate nominee; former state Sen. David Hann; and former House candidate Tom Weiler.
National Democrats pushed back on the idea that Tafoya could win in Minnesota.
“As Michele Tafoya enters a crowded GOP primary, her campaign will be plagued by her history of far-right positions that are out of step with Minnesotans, including serving as a spokesperson for an anti-abortion group and supporting spiking health care costs for up to 90,000 Minnesotans,” Maeve Coyle, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement.
Still, Craig, a fourth-term congresswoman, said in a video responding to Tafoya’s entry that the race would be a “dog fight.”
“Democrats can’t afford to nominate someone who’s never won a competitive election on her own,” she added in an apparent dig at Flanagan, a former state legislator who’s twice been elected on a joint ticket with Walz.
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the Senate race in Minnesota as Likely Democratic.
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