Former sportscaster Michele Tafoya cruised to victory Tuesday in the Minnesota Republican Senate primary.
The four-time Emmy Award-winning sports journalist entered the GOP primary after incumbent Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) announced she wouldn’t be seeking a second term last February.
Tafoya led with 51% of the vote, besting former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze (22%) and ex-professional basketball player Royce White (9%) with about a fifth of the ballots counted.
Tafoya, who roamed NFL sidelines for more than a decade as a reporter for ABC and ESPN “Monday Night Football,” and later NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” campaigned as a political outsider who can flip Smith’s Senate seat and bring “common sense” to Washington.
“Minnesota is in play,” she wrote on X just hours before polls closed. “We have a real opportunity to flip this Senate seat and defeat far-left socialist Democrats in November.”
Tafoya has been endorsed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).
President Trump, however, did not give Tafoya his stamp of approval. Minnesota Republicans also opted to endorse Schwarze over her at the party’s convention in May.
Tafoya, who has been vocal on social media about political issues for years, campaigned on cracking down on fraud, and supports imposing mandatory minimum prison sentences on convicted fraudsters and deporting illegal migrants that steal taxpayer money.
She also pledged to “fight tooth and nail” against left-wing efforts to abolish ICE; support the SAVE Act in Congress; and “get men out of women’s sports.”
Tafoya started her career at Minneapolis’ radio station KFAN, covering the Minnesota Vikings and the University of Minneapolis before being hired by CBS in 1994.
Minnesotans haven’t elected a Republican to represent them in the Senate since 2002.
Tafoya will likely face either Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan or Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) in the general election in November.
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