Former sports broadcaster turned conservative media figure Michele Tafoya is considering a run for Senate in Minnesota after meeting with officials from the National Republican Senatorial Committee last week in Washington, according to a source familiar with her thinking.
Tafoya would give Minnesota Republicans their first high-profile candidate in a Senate race to replace the retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith. The left-leaning state is considered a long shot Senate opportunity for Republicans in next year’s midterm elections, but GOP strategists are hopeful that the presence of a well-funded candidate could force Democrats to play defense there and siphon valuable resources from other battleground states.
Democrats also face a contentious primary in Minnesota, featuring a battle between Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan that has turned into a proxy fight between the party’s centrist and liberal factions.
Tafoya has publicly considered a Senate run since early in the year. But Minnesota Republicans say that speculation she would run has increased in recent weeks, with some of them suggesting she is now expected to launch a campaign.
“For the last two weeks, that’s what people have been saying, that she had decided to run,” said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from the state.
Weber said he has not spoken to Tafoya, but other Republicans in Minnesota say her potential candidacy has been a hot topic of conversation in the state.
“There’s a lot of conversation in Republican circles that Michele Tafoya has been considering a run for Senate,” said Brian McClung, a Minnesota-based Republican strategist.
Tafoya, who did not respond to a request for comment through a representative, suggested in an October Substack post that she was considering a run after speaking with former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz.
“Did I leave wanting to run for the U.S. Senate? It certainly crossed my mind,” she wrote.
The speculation over Tafoya was enough that this summer the Craig campaign tested how the former sports journalist would perform in a head-to-head matchup with the Democratic congresswoman and Flanagan, according to an internal Craig memo obtained by NOTUS. The two Democratic candidates each held a small lead over Tafoya.
Tafoya worked as a sideline reporter for NBC’s coverage of Sunday night National Football League games until 2022. She had previously covered Super Bowls and Olympic Games for the broadcast network.
The Craig campaign sought to use the news of Tafoya’s interest in a Senate campaign to argue that Democrats needed to pick the congresswoman as their nominee.
“There is only one candidate in this race who has taken on Republicans in tough races and won – Congresswoman Angie Craig,” Craig campaign spokesperson Antoine Givens said in a statement. “She has a record of delivering for Minnesotans: from writing the bill that capped the cost of insulin to $35 for seniors to standing up to the Trump administration, it’s clear she is in the best position to keep Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate seat blue.”
This article has been updated with a comment from the Craig campaign.
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