Amy Jacobson and Jim Iuorio, filling in for Dan Proft, welcomed Michele Tafoya, four-time Emmy-winning broadcaster and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, ahead of the state’s upcoming primary. Tafoya, seeking the seat being vacated by retiring Senator Tina Smith, said polling shows her as the Republican candidate best positioned to win a seat her party has not held in two decades, and criticized both potential Democratic opponents, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and Congresswoman Angie Craig, the latter of whom Tafoya said voted against a recent farm bill despite Minnesota’s significant agricultural economy.
Much of the interview focused on Governor Tim Walz’s decision to support a state pardon for Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian immigrant convicted of repeatedly sexually assaulting a ten-year-old girl over a period of years. Tafoya criticized comments Walz made questioning whether Vang’s subsequent deportation, ultimately carried out after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked his legal status, made Minnesota communities any safer, and pushed back on Walz’s suggestion that people should not be judged by their “worst day,” arguing that sustained abuse over multiple years cannot reasonably be characterized as a single bad moment. Tafoya said the episode reflects what she views as a broader pattern of dysfunction under one-party Democratic control in Minnesota, alongside Attorney General Keith Ellison’s handling of separate fraud-related controversies within the state.
Tafoya traced her political engagement back to the September 11th attacks, describing a gradual, decades-long shift from her broadcasting career toward political involvement as she grew increasingly concerned about Minnesota’s trajectory. She said her family’s decision to enter the Senate race was made deliberately following extensive internal discussion, coinciding with Smith’s retirement announcement creating an open seat.
Discussing her departure from a broadcasting career that included work with the NFL, Tafoya addressed the league’s embrace of on-field political protests during the anthem, which she said personally troubled her as a First Amendment absolutist who nonetheless respected players’ right to protest. She said watching cultural shifts within professional sports, combined with concerns about curriculum content in her children’s schools, helped drive her growing focus on education policy, including learning gaps in reading and math proficiency among Minnesota students.
Tafoya also criticized the use of anatomically modifiable dolls in some Minnesota educational and clinical settings intended to teach young children about gender identity, arguing the material is inappropriate for children as young as four or five years old. She characterized the practice as reflecting a broader ideological push she believes most Minnesota parents oppose.
Tafoya closed by discussing her decision to return her diploma from the University of California, Berkeley, in protest of the university’s rejection of certain conservative campus speakers roughly a decade ago, while noting she retained her graduate business degree from the University of Southern California. She directed listeners to her campaign website ahead of Tuesday’s primary election.