Michele Tafoya made a name for herself roaming stadium sidelines, but now she is ready to call the political plays.

The renowned sports broadcaster is running in the Republican primary to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate, she announced Wednesday. Tafoya spoke with Breitbart News Tuesday before making her announcement, emphasizing her desire to end the corruption that has become synonymous with the state under Democrat leadership.

Tafoya makes her decision while there are accusations of widespread taxpayer fraud throughout Minnesota.

“Minnesota is at a tipping point. We’ve had a failure, an epic failure of leadership here, and all the career politicians who are in office or also running for office again aren’t coming to save us,” she told Breitbart News. “And so I’ve just gotten pushed to the point where I decided to raise my hand, and I do it gladly because I love this state.”

Minnesota will have an open Senate seat after Sen. Tina Smith’s decision not to seek reelection to a second full term. Smith was initially elevated to the Senate in 2018 after her appointment by Gov. Mark Dayton (D-MN), whom Smith had worked for as chief of staff and, at the time of her appointment, as lieutenant governor. That seat had opened upon the resignation of disgraced Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who became embroiled in a #MeToo scandal.

The state’s other senator, Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), is a likely candidate for governor after disgraced Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), amid amplifying criticism for his role in the state’s rampant fraud, reversed his September decision to run for a third term. If Klobuchar wins, she could appoint Walz, the man who cleared her path to the governor’s mansion, to her Senate seat.

“We need to turn this around. And so, you know, we’ve seen a lot of craziness and corruption. I want to answer with some common sense and courage, and I think Minnesota is ripe for this right now. People are. They see it. They’re not blind; they’re not stupid. Something’s amiss in Minnesota, and it needs to be fixed, and that’s why I’m running.”

Tafoya has lived with her family in Minnesota for three decades, during which she has seen the state succumb to the consequences of Democrat leadership.

“At the moment, violent crime is at historic highs, and incarcerations are trending down. So what about that makes sense?” she asked. “There’s more crime and fewer people being held accountable. Really, the criminal justice system has turned into a turnstile, and we’ve experienced it with friends and family members.”

Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies and sanctuary city policies have subjected Minnesotans to increasing danger, Tafoya said, further contributing to the lawlessness made evident by recent fraud reports.

“Law enforcement is not really empowered to do its job here,” she explained. “So we’ve seen the fraudsters, the billions and billions of dollars that were stolen from Minnesotans and, frankly, from taxpayers across the country … because some of the questions that should have been asked about what was going on were too politically incorrect for the people at the top, like Tim Walz and our Attorney General Keith Ellison.”

Tafoya says Democrats’ sanctuary and open border policies, inflammatory rhetoric, and instructions to state and local law enforcement not to cooperate with federal officials have combined to create the firestorm in Minneapolis. This sadly resulted in a protester, Renee Good, obstructing federal law enforcement and allegedly attempting to run down an ICE officer who opened fire in self-defense, killing Good.

“We have to get back to how we got here, and remember that the border was wide open for four years, and there was no way all of these people who came across were properly vetted,” Tafoya told Breitbart News. “We know terrorists got across. We know criminals got across. We have arrested many of them here in Minnesota, among other places, but definitely here in Minnesota. So if Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey weren’t so insistent on just picking a political fight, they would allow local police to assist in these arrests.”

“It has just created not only unsafe conditions for law enforcement, but for the citizens as well,” she added.

Tafoya will also focus her campaign on affordability, blaming high taxes from Democrats for the “crisis in the middle class.”

“In Minnesota, they are way too high,” she said of taxes. “It’s burdensome, not only for families, but for businesses. And you know, look, I’m a working mom. I’ve lived this balancing act, and under Joe Biden, we have this unbelievable runaway inflation, and life got crushingly expensive. And the response from politicians was, ‘Hey, you know what? Let’s give even more money and power to the bureaucrats, big government, Big Pharma, teachers’ unions.’ Well, how’s that working out?”

Not well, according to Tafoya.

“Health care is more expensive. Education, particularly college education, is more expensive … Less than 50 percent of our kids can read or do math at grade level,” she explained. “So the spending keeps going up and up, and the results get worse and worse.”

Tafoya singled out President Donald Trump’s work on lowering energy and prescription drug prices as improving affordability for Minnesotans from the Biden years. In addition to fighting for lower taxes to reduce everyday costs for Minnesotans, Tafoya vowed to fight the waste, fraud, and abuse in government that, unfortunately, has become synonymous with the state in recent weeks.

“I vow that I will fight to lower costs for these middle-class families,” she declared. “We’ve got to lower taxes. We’ve got to make grocery prices come down and help out with the energy bills. We’ve got to make those come down. But, like you said, gas is at a five-year low. That’s good. Rent and mortgages have to be more affordable. I think there’s a lot that can be done to streamline that. We’ve got to continue the president’s work of lowering prescription drug prices, and again, this waste, fraud, and abuse that is robbing taxpayers blind. We can give people a raise if we can just get rid of all of that.”

The Republican primary in Minnesota will be held on August 11, 2026.

Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.