Michele Tafoya, the Republican nominee for Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate seat, has claimed Minnesotans are too embarrassed to admit where they live when travelling out of state.
The former sportscaster, who previously worked for networks including ESPN, made the remarks during an appearance on Fox News’s America Reports with host John Roberts.
Roberts had pointed to polling data showing Tafoya trailing Democratic nominee and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who clinched her party’s nomination after defeating Representative Angie Craig.
One early poll shows Flanagan leading Tafoya by eight points, with Craig having been backed by the Democratic establishment before losing the primary contest.
Tafoya told Fox News: “Minnesotans are exhausted, and John, quite frankly, they’re embarrassed. 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 framed the remarks as reflecting the views of Minnesota voters she had spoken to, rather than purely her own personal sentiment about the state.
She also said, “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.”
Flanagan, considered a progressive, secured the Democratic nomination, setting up what is expected to be a competitive general election race for the Senate seat.
Tafoya’s comments have drawn significant criticism, particularly in the context of broader tensions surrounding federal immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota in 2026.
Critics argue that attacking the state’s identity and character while seeking to represent it in Washington is a politically costly strategy that risks alienating voters across party lines.
Tafoya, who was relatively unknown in Minnesota political circles before entering the race, now faces the challenge of building name recognition while simultaneously defending remarks many Minnesotans have found deeply offensive.
Flanagan leads in early polling, and Tafoya’s Fox News appearance is unlikely to have narrowed that gap among the broad coalition of voters she will need to win a statewide contest.