Newly minted Republican Senate nominee Michele Tafoya says Minnesotans are embarrassed by what Democratic leadership has done to their state—a comment quickly repackaged by liberal media as an attack on Minnesota itself.
Tafoya, the former NFL sideline reporter, won Minnesota’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday with approximately 52% of the vote. She will face progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who defeated establishment-backed Rep. Angie Craig in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary.
Appearing Wednesday on Fox News’ America Reports, Tafoya was confronted with Minnesota’s daunting political history for Republicans.
“The reality, politically, is that there has not been a Republican senator in that state since Norm Coleman lost reelection back in 2008,” anchor John Roberts told her. “The cards are stacked against you, it would seem.”
An early Emerson College poll showed Flanagan leading Tafoya by six points, 47% to 41%, with 12% undecided. Other reporting has described Flanagan’s advantage as seven or eight points.
Tafoya responded that disaffected Craig supporters—and Minnesotans fed up with Democratic governance—could provide her an opening.
“We think all those Angie Craig voters who feel that the Democrat Party has left them, that the Democrat Party has lurched away to the left, way toward socialism, they know where it’s headed,” Tafoya said.
“Minnesotans are exhausted, and John, quite frankly, they’re embarrassed,” she continued. “I have talked to hundreds of voters in Minnesota who have told me, ‘Gosh, I went on vacation this summer. I didn’t want to tell people where I was from because it’s embarrassing.’”
“And it’s true,” Tafoya added. “We have people leaving. Just like everyone else talks about these people leaving, businesses fleeing. You’re talking about philanthropy, innovation—all kinds of taxpayer-funded things leaving because taxpayers are leaving. This is untenable. We’re gonna save Minnesota.”
Mediaite promptly declared that Tafoya had said it was “embarrassing” to be from Minnesota. That strips away the obvious context. She was describing what voters told her about the state’s political leadership—not condemning Minnesota or its residents.
Tafoya’s remarks landed as Minnesota’s sprawling public-benefits fraud scandal continues to threaten Democrats who have controlled the state government.
Dozens of defendants have been convicted in schemes that siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from programs intended to help children and vulnerable residents. Republicans have accused Gov. Tim Walz, Flanagan and other state Democrats of failing to provide basic oversight while politically connected nonprofit operators treated taxpayer programs like personal bank accounts.
The scandal has given Minnesota Republicans what the Associated Press described Thursday as a rare opportunity to compete statewide.
Tafoya has made accountability central to her campaign.
“Minnesotans deserve responsible, transparent leadership,” she said after winning the nomination. “They deserve to know where their money is going, who is responsible when it disappears and why no one in power seems willing to answer for it.”
Flanagan has served as Walz’s lieutenant governor since 2019. Republicans will try to make it difficult for her to campaign as an outsider to an administration she helped lead.
She nevertheless enters the general election as the favorite. Minnesota Republicans have not won a statewide election in two decades, and President Donald Trump remains polarizing in a state he has repeatedly tried—and failed—to carry.
Flanagan’s primary victory also denied Democrats the more moderate candidate party leaders reportedly preferred.
Craig represented a competitive congressional district and campaigned as a pragmatic Democrat capable of appealing to suburban and independent voters. Flanagan instead ran with support from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, rejected assistance from corporate PACs and made opposition to federal immigration enforcement a defining issue.
Her victory followed other progressive successes around the country and confirmed that Democratic primary voters remain receptive to candidates pushing the party further left.
Tafoya believes that shift gives her an opening with Craig voters who may not be willing to follow.
“We have to make sure that those Democrats who feel abandoned know they have somewhere to go,” Tafoya told Fox News. “This is about common sense.”
The challenge will be turning dissatisfaction with Flanagan’s ideology into votes for a Republican in a state where the GOP’s statewide losing streak has survived several supposedly favorable political environments.
Democrats also wasted no time resurfacing a March radio interview in which Tafoya discussed rising gasoline prices caused by the Iran war.
“I think right now, at least just kind of keeping a stiff upper lip, maybe you take one less trip to Starbucks and so that gas goes a little further, until this thing is over and these gas prices come back down again,” she said.
“Let’s just try to be patriots about this.”
Critics called the comment “tone-deaf,” arguing that families struggling with food, housing and fuel costs have already cut discretionary spending.
It is likely to appear repeatedly in Democratic advertising. Tafoya wants to make the election a referendum on Flanagan’s record, taxes and fraud. Flanagan will try to make it about Trump—and portray Tafoya as disconnected from working families.
Tafoya did not say Minnesota itself is embarrassing. She said voters are embarrassed by its government. Mediaite’s headline erased that distinction because the full quote was inconvenient.
Her real challenge is proving those embarrassed voters are ready to do something Minnesota has resisted for 20 years: elect a Republican statewide.
The fraud, missing taxpayer money and hard-left Democratic nominee have given her an opening. If Tafoya cannot turn that record into a winning case, the problem will not be media spin. It will be her campaign.
WIRE SOURCES:
- Mediaite: Minnesota GOP Senate candidate says “it’s embarrassing” to be from the state
- Fox News: Michele Tafoya makes pitch to disaffected Democrats after primary victory
- Fox 9: Peggy Flanagan and Michele Tafoya win Minnesota Senate primaries
- Associated Press: Minnesota fraud scandal gives Republicans an opening
- Reuters: Four lessons from the latest Midwest primaries
- Tax Foundation: Minnesota’s 2026 tax rates and rankings
- Minnesota Chamber of Commerce: 2026 Business Benchmarks report
- IRS: State-to-state migration data
