Michele Tafoya in Grapevine, Texas on June 10, 2023 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Republican strategists are hoping that if Democrats are able to flip any GOP-held U.S. Senate seats in the 2026 midterms, they will be able to offset the losses by doing some flipping of their own. One of the states they're looking at is Minnesota, where Republican Michele Tafoya is up against the Democratic nominee, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. But Tafoya now finds herself in a controversy over past criticism of Minnesota she is now trying to distance herself from.
Andrew Kaczynski of CNN's KFile notes that during a recent radio interview in her state, Tafoya was asked about past criticism of Minnesota. The U.S. Senate hopeful responded, "If I were embarrassed to be from Minnesota, would I be running for the United States Senate to represent Minnesota? I have never said that."
But according to Kaczynski, KFile uncovered a "since-deleted tweet" from March 2023 in which Tafoya — a former television sports reporter — contradicts her recent claim.
In the X post, Tafoya wrote, "I'm embarrassed to say I live in Minnesota. This state has gone so far left it's amazing any of the snow still sticks."
"When another user told her she could leave," Kaczynski explains in his KFile report, "Tafoya replied, 'That's the plan! Have a great day!' She added that she was considering moving to Tennessee. A day after that, asked by another user 'promise?' she wrote, 'Yes. I want to make you and your 35 followers happy.' The deleted exchange was part of a broader pattern of Tafoya criticizing the state she is now running to represent."
Kaczynski continues, "A CNN KFile review found that, in the years before launching her Senate campaign, in tweets and on her podcast, Tafoya repeatedly said she planned to leave Minnesota. At times, she described Minnesota in sharply negative terms because of its politics, while often identifying herself as a part-time Floridian and praising that state as a model of conservative governance. In just the past three years, Tafoya told followers, at least four separate times, that she planned to leave the state."
Minnesota presently has two Democratic U.S. senators: Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, who isn't seeking reelection. Tafoya and Flanagan are competing for the seat Smith will be vacating in January 2027.
Polls released in September are showing a close race. A co/efficient poll found Flanagan ahead by only 1 percent, while a Quantus Insights poll showed her with a 4 percent lead. However, a KSTP/SurveyUSA poll found Tafoya and Flanagan in a dead heat.