Trump urges Minnesotans to vote for Michele Tafoya in US Senate race

Walker Orenstein, Star Tribune on Oct 13, 2026

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President Donald Trump urged voters to pick Republican Michele Tafoya in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, the first time he has weighed in on the election this year.

“You have to vote for Michele Tafoya, who is a very respected person,” Trump said at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Monday. “She’s very respected.”

The directive may help fire up a Republican base to head to the polls at a time when polling shows the GOP is less enthusiastic to vote than Democrats in Minnesota.

But Trump’s message also comes at a time when Tafoya has distanced herself from a president who is deeply unpopular here and while Tafoya’s Democratic opponent has painted her as a Trump loyalist.

Trump’s comments came the same day as a new Star Tribune/KARE 11 Minnesota Poll showed Tafoya down 4 percentage points to Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. The GOP has targeted Minnesota as a state it could flip during a year when the party is facing headwinds and defending seats in conservative states like Texas, Ohio and Kansas.

When asked by reporters Tuesday about Trump urging Minnesotans to vote for her, Tafoya did not embrace the endorsement. She said: “I heard about that.”

“This campaign is about bringing all Minnesotans together, whether they voted for President Trump or whether they voted for Kamala Harris or whether they didn’t vote at all,” Tafoya said.

She also called for a fast and strategic exit strategy for the Iran war, which she blamed for high prices, and said former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “abysmally” handled the president’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Tafoya also criticized Trump’s rhetoric about Somalis after recent episodes violence as “not appropriate.”

Meanwhile, Flanagan spokeswoman Lexi Byler said in a news release that “Michele Tafoya spent all year auditioning for Donald Trump’s endorsement, and yesterday she got it.”

“No wonder he calls her ‘very respected’ — she’s in lockstep with him on everything,” Byler said.

Trump did not endorse Tafoya, or any other candidate, during the Republican primary.

Trump has not endorsed a candidate in Minnesota’s race for governor. He backed MyPillow founder Mike Lindell in the GOP primary, but House Speaker Lisa Demuth won the nomination.

Tafoya, who called for Trump to not run in the 2024 election but warmed to the president over time, at one point said she would welcome his endorsement.

In recent weeks she has said in television ads that she’s an independent voice who will stand up to her party when necessary.

Still, Trump could help galvanize Republican voters the GOP needs to turn out in droves. The party has seen weaker turnout in years Trump is not on the ballot.

At Monday’s rally, Trump cited the recent shooting at the Eden Prairie High School football game and an arrest of an 18-year-old Somali American man who federal authorities accuse of plotting to carry out a mass shooting at the Mall of America.

“This is not what we want in this country,” Trump said.

Tafoya said Tuesday that “Minnesotans do not want to scapegoat the entire Somali community.”

“As I said last week, President Trump’s rhetoric was not appropriate,” Tafoya said. “I approach leadership differently. But Minnesota, we do not have to choose between on the one hand scapegoating people and on the other ignoring this problem.”

Tafoya held her event with the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, which represents frontline officers.

She rolled out a five-part plan to combat crime, which included a pledge of faster federal prosecutions, an FBI “threat assessment hub” for gang activity coordinated via social media in Minneapolis, holding tech companies liable if their platforms are used for gang violence and penalties for businesses that don’t work closely with police.

“A politician who cannot even say the phrase ‘Somali gang violence’ will never fix this problem,” Tafoya said of Flanagan.

Flanagan said last week she supports what the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is doing “to bring regional law enforcement together on a comprehensive strategy to tackle gang violence.”

Trump also revived his claim he “won Minnesota three times” at Monday’s rally. He lost the state in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections and accused Democrats of cheating without evidence.

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Nicole Norfleet of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.

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