GOP Senate nominee denied saying she was embarrassed to live in Minnesota. A deleted tweet says otherwise

In a local radio interview earlier this month, Michele Tafoya, the Republican Senate nominee in Minnesota and former sports broadcaster, was asked about her past criticism of the state and whether she was embarrassed by Minnesota.

“If I were embarrassed to be from Minnesota, would I be running for the United States Senate to represent Minnesota?” Tafoya asked, before adding, “I have never said that.”

But three years ago, in a since-deleted tweet uncovered by CNN’s KFile, Tafoya said exactly that.

“I’m embarrassed to say I live in Minnesota. This state has gone so far left it’s amazing any of the snow still sticks,” Tafoya posted in March 2023.

When another user told her she could leave, Tafoya replied , “That’s the plan! Have a great day!” She added that she was considering moving to Tennessee. A day after that, asked by another user “promise?” she wrote , “Yes. I want to make you and your 35 followers happy.”

The deleted exchange was part of a broader pattern of Tafoya criticizing the state she is now running to represent.

A CNN KFile review found that, in the years before launching her Senate campaign, in tweets and on her podcast, Tafoya repeatedly said she planned to leave Minnesota. At times she described Minnesota in sharply negative terms because of its politics, while often identifying herself as a part-time Floridian and praising that state as a model of conservative governance.

In just the past three years, Tafoya told followers at least four separate times that she planned to leave the state.

Tafoya is facing Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in November for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith. Republicans are hoping to flip the open seat as they seek their first Minnesota Senate victory since 2002.

Tafoya’s campaign is built around criticism of Minnesota’s political leadership. Her platform describes schools that “used to be a crown jewel,” a state that “was ground zero” for the Defund the Police movement and a “crisis of leadership” caused by politicians she calls “crazy” and “cowards.” Her campaign promises a Minnesota “comeback.”

But her other posts went further, expressing embarrassment not merely with the state’s leaders but with living in Minnesota itself because of its politics, and repeatedly discussed plans to leave.

Democrats have seized on some of those comments. A week after Tafoya won the Republican nomination, Minnesota Democrats sought to capitalize on some of them with a page calling her “Minnesota’s Biggest Hater.”

Among the highlighted comments by Minnesota Democrats: an August interview on Fox News in which Tafoya said she had spoken with Minnesota voters who told her they were embarrassed to say where they were from. The interview later prompted the local-radio question where Tafoya falsely denied she had ever said she was embarrassed to be from Minnesota.

In the radio interview earlier this month, Tafoya did acknowledge that she had wanted to leave Minnesota at the time of the 2024 post. “Well two years ago I was in that place.”

Asked what changed, she pointed to her family’s ties to the state.

“I think just over time watching my kids go through school. Watching them want to stay here. My son’s in college here. My daughter’s a senior in high school here. They love it here. And that matters to me,” she said. “This state means a lot to us.”

In a statement provided by her campaign to CNN, Tafoya criticized the state’s Democratic leaders, saying, “I hear from Minnesotans every day that they are fed up and won’t be staying forever if we can’t turn this state around. I love Minnesota and I got into this race to fight for it.”

Brian Peterson/AP/File

A veteran sports broadcaster, Tafoya spent nearly three decades covering the NFL, NBA and Olympics for CBS , ABC, ESPN and NBC, most prominently as the sideline reporter for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” from 2011 until she left the network in 2022 .

She moved to Minnesota in 1993 to work for Minneapolis local sports station KFAN, where she covered the Minnesota Vikings.

In January 2022, she said she was leaving sports broadcasting, but not the state. “Minnesota is my home,” Tafoya told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “My kids love it here.”

By November 2022 she seemed less certain about Minnesota on her new podcast “Sideline Sanity,” on conservative radio.

“You were smart enough to move south,” Tafoya told a guest on her podcast in 2022, adding, “I’m sitting here in snow and cold today, but eventually I’m gonna be a Florida resident.”

A few months later, Tafoya described herself on her podcast as “sort of a Florida woman,” because she lived part time and owned a house there.

References to Florida were not isolated to her podcast. In tweets, Tafoya repeatedly praised Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis while highlighting the state’s policies as a model for other states.

In a tweet in September 2023, Tafoya, referring to herself as a Florida resident, shared a Wall Street Journal opinion article praising DeSantis’ response to Hurricane Idalia that argued it would be an asset to any forthcoming president campaign.

“What Florida residents (including me) understand about @GovRonDeSantis,” she wrote.

In August 2024, Tafoya quote-tweeted a post arguing Minnesota had become “California Midwest,” and was ruined by “half a century of kooks and communists.” She responded , “as a native Californian who moved to Minnesota in 1994, I know. Fleeing soon.”

A year later, after a shooting at a Catholic schoo l in Minnesota, she invoked the same idea again while attacking Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom for commenting on the tragedy. “I was born in CA and left… I moved to Minnesota and will be leaving. The GOP is in charge of neither state,” she said.

In July 2025, Tafoya said on a podcast, “There are a lot of people leaving, and I think I’ll be one of them in the near future.”

Later, in September she added , “When I first moved to Minnesota, I really liked it here. It was safe and clean and beautiful and culturally diverse. And now it is not as safe, it is not as clean, it is not as beautiful, and we have Ilhan Omar and Tim Walz. So, suffice to say, I won’t be here for the long haul.”

Four months later, she announced her candidacy to be Minnesota’s next senator.

在本月初的一次地方电台采访中，明尼苏达州共和党参议员候选人、前体育播音员米歇尔·塔福亚被问及她过去对该州的批评，以及她是否对明尼苏达州感到尴尬。

“如果我以身为明尼苏达州人而感到羞耻，我还会竞选美国参议员代表明尼苏达州吗？”塔福亚问道，然后补充道，“我从未说过这样的话。”

但三年前，在 CNN 的 KFile 栏目发现的一条后来被删除的推文中，塔福亚说过同样的话。

“我很惭愧地说我住在明尼苏达州。这个州已经左倾到这种程度了，真让人难以置信雪还能积起来，”塔福亚在2023年3月发帖说。

当另一位用户告诉她可以离开时，塔福亚回复道：“正打算这么做！祝你今天过得愉快！”她还补充说，她正在考虑搬到田纳西州。一天后，另一位用户问她“保证吗？”，她回复道：“是的。我想让你和你的35个粉丝开心。”

被删除的这段对话是塔福亚批评她现在竞选代表的州的一系列言论的一部分。

CNN KFile 的一项调查发现，在发起参议员竞选之前的几年里，塔福亚曾在推特和播客节目中多次表示她计划离开明尼苏达州。她有时对明尼苏达州的政治状况持强烈负面评价，但同时又经常自称是佛罗里达州的“兼职居民”，并称赞佛罗里达州是保守派治理的典范。

在过去的三年里，塔福亚至少四次告诉她的粉丝，她计划离开该州。

塔福亚将于11月与民主党副州长佩吉·弗拉纳根角逐即将退休的民主党参议员蒂娜·史密斯空出的席位。共和党希望赢得这个空缺席位，力争自2002年以来首次在明尼苏达州参议院取得胜利。

塔福亚的竞选纲领围绕着对明尼苏达州政治领导层的批评展开。她的竞选纲领将学校描述为“曾经的瑰宝”，将明尼苏达州描述为“取消警察经费运动的震中”，并指出该州正面临着由她口中“疯狂”且“懦弱”的政客造成的“领导危机”。她的竞选承诺将带领明尼苏达州“重振雄风”。

但她的其他帖子更进一步，不仅对明尼苏达州的领导人感到尴尬，而且因为明尼苏达州的政治而对生活在明尼苏达州本身感到尴尬，并多次讨论离开的计划。

民主党人抓住了其中的一些言论大做文章。塔福亚赢得共和党提名一周后，明尼苏达州民主党人试图利用这些言论攻击她，甚至专门建了一个网页，称她为“明尼苏达州最大的仇恨者”。

明尼苏达州民主党人重点提及的一件事是：塔福亚在8月份接受福克斯新闻采访时表示，她曾与一些明尼苏达州选民交谈，这些选民告诉她，他们不好意思说出自己的家乡。这次采访之后，当地电台就此事向塔福亚提出质疑，塔福亚在质疑中否认自己曾说过以身为明尼苏达州人而感到羞耻。

在本月初的电台采访中，塔福亚承认，在2024年竞选州长时，她确实想离开明尼苏达州。“两年前，我的确有过这样的想法。”

当被问及是什么改变了她的想法时，她指出她的家庭与该州有着密切的联系。

“我觉得随着时间的推移，看着我的孩子们在这里上学，看着他们想留在这里，这一切都让我更加坚定了决心。我儿子在这里上大学，我女儿在这里读高三。他们热爱这里，这对我来说很重要，”她说。“这个州对我们意义非凡。”

塔福亚通过竞选团队向CNN发表声明，批评了该州的民主党领导人，她说：“我每天都能听到明尼苏达州民众抱怨，他们已经受够了，如果我们不能扭转这个州的局面，他们就不会永远留在这里。我热爱明尼苏达州，我参加这场竞选就是为了捍卫它。”

Brian Peterson/美联社/档案照片

作为一名资深体育播音员，塔福亚曾为 CBS、ABC、ESPN 和 NBC 报道 NFL、NBA 和奥运会近三十年，其中最引人注目的是她从 2011 年到 2022 年离开 NBC 电视台期间担任 NBC“周日橄榄球之夜”的场边记者。

1993 年，她搬到明尼苏达州，在明尼阿波利斯当地体育电台 KFAN 工作，负责报道明尼苏达维京人队。

2022年1月，她表示将离开体育广播行业，但不会离开明尼苏达州。“明尼苏达是我的家，”塔福亚告诉《明尼苏达明星论坛报》，“我的孩子们喜欢这里。”

到 2022 年 11 月，她在保守派电台的新播客节目“场边理智”中似乎对明尼苏达州的看法不太确定了。

“你很聪明地搬到了南方，”塔福亚在 2022 年做客她的播客节目时对一位嘉宾说，“我今天坐在这里，又冷又下雪，但最终我还是会成为佛罗里达州的居民。”

几个月后，塔福亚在她的播客节目中将自己描述为“有点像佛罗里达女人”，因为她在那里有一段时间居住，并且在那里拥有一套房子。

塔福亚对佛罗里达州的提及并非仅限于她的播客节目。在推特上，她多次赞扬共和党州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯，并强调该州的政策可以作为其他州的典范。

2023 年 9 月，塔福亚在推特上自称是佛罗里达州居民，分享了一篇《华尔街日报》的评论文章，赞扬了德桑蒂斯对飓风伊达利亚的应对措施，认为这对任何即将到来的总统竞选来说都是一笔宝贵的财富。

她写道：“佛罗里达州居民（包括我）对@GovRonDeSantis 的了解。”

2024年8月，塔福亚转发了一条推文，该推文声称明尼苏达州已经变成了“加州中西部”，并被“半个世纪的疯子和共产主义者”毁掉了。她回应道：“作为一个1994年搬到明尼苏达州的加州本地人，我懂。我很快就要离开了。”

一年后，明尼苏达州一所天主教学校发生枪击案，她再次援引同样的观点，抨击加州民主党州长加文·纽森就这起悲剧发表评论。“我出生在加州，后来离开了……我搬到了明尼苏达州，之后也会离开。共和党在这两个州都执政不了，”她说。

2025 年 7 月，塔福亚在播客节目中说：“很多人都要离开了，我想我不久的将来也会是其中之一。”

后来，她在九月份补充道：“我刚搬到明尼苏达州的时候，真的很喜欢这里。这里安全、干净、美丽，而且文化多元。但现在这里不再那么安全、干净、美丽了，而且还有伊尔汗·奥马尔和蒂姆·沃尔兹这样的人。所以，不用多说，我不会在这里久留。”

四个月后，她宣布竞选明尼苏达州下一任参议员。