Michele Tafoya kept Donald Trump at a distance in her Minnesota Senate bid against Peggy Flanagan
Minnesota Republican Senate candidate Michele Tafoya distanced herself from Donald Trump
Minnesota Republican Senate candidate Michele Tafoya distanced herself from Donald Trump(Image: Getty)
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Michele Tafoya spent the final weeks of her Senate campaign trying to keep Donald Trump at arm’s length, even after he endorsed her, as the Republicans started to realize the impact of the president's growing unpopularity on their chances.
It didn't help, though, as the former NFL sideline reporter lost the race, which major news outlets called shortly after midnight.
Tafoya was the Republican nominee in Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate election against Democratic-Farmer-Labor Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. As the race was called, The New York Times predicted Flanagan to win by close to 10 percentage points — even though she had been expected to claim a narrow victory. Trump endorsed Tafoya in mid-October, but she did not embrace the news. Asked for her reaction, she pointed voters toward Election Day instead.
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“There is one endorsement that I care about and that is the one that happens on Nov. 3; truly, this is about Minnesota,” Tafoya said.
At the campaign’s only scheduled debate, hosted by MPR News on Oct. 16, Tafoya declined to say whether she would share a stage with Trump if he campaigned in the state. Flanagan, in turn, would not say whether she would campaign with Gov. Tim Walz, who ended his bid for a third term earlier this year amid a fraud crisis in state social service programs.
Tafoya tried to tie Flanagan to that scandal and argued she should be fired rather than promoted, while Flanagan argued that Tafoya would be a rubber stamp for the president.
Tafoya also moved away from the president on several of the issues that mattered most. She initially supported Operation Metro Surge but became sharply critical of how it was carried out, and she backed the war with Iran before saying it needed to end quickly because rising gas and diesel prices were hurting Minnesotans. On immigration, she called the January deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents “devastating.”
“I am happy to say I will stand up to my party when I believe in something,” Tafoya said.
Flanagan accused Tafoya of reinventing herself on those issues and pointed to her earlier support for the Iran war. Flanagan won the DFL primary in August by nearly 20 points, while Tafoya won the Republican nomination the same night.
Trump endorsed Tafoya in mid-October
Trump endorsed Tafoya in mid-October(Image: Star Tribune via Getty Images)
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Heading into Election Day, the Real Clear Politics polling average showed Flanagan ahead 46.2 to 43.3 percent, a 2.9-point lead within the margin of error, which made the race one of the closest in the country.
Tafoya’s campaign leaned heavily on attacking fraud cases from the Walz administration, and she promised to take that fight to Washington regardless of party.
“I am going to Washington to be an equal opportunity pain in the a-- to every corrupt politician regardless of party, regardless of stature,” Tafoya said.