Flanagan and Tafoya Trade Fraud and Trump Attacks in Their Only Minnesota Senate Debate

Democrat Peggy Flanagan and Republican Michele Tafoya met Friday in the only debate of Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, held at MPR News in St. Paul. Over the hour, each candidate tried to pin the other to an unpopular figure. Tafoya pressed Flanagan on her ties to Gov. Tim Walz and the fraud scandal in state programs. Flanagan said Tafoya would be a rubber stamp for President Trump. An independent, Marisa Simonetti, and a Libertarian, Rebecca Whiting, are on the ballot but were not part of the debate.

The seat has been held by Democrats since 2009. Flanagan has been Minnesota's lieutenant governor for the last eight years, and she is a progressive. Tafoya spent years as a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football and has never held public office. Peter Cox of Minnesota Public Radio told NPR that recent polls show the two neck and neck, with Flanagan holding a four-point edge in the most recent one. One top election forecaster has moved the race from Likely Democratic to Lean Democratic.

A margin that tight would normally draw heavy party spending, but that is not happening. Cox said Republicans are fighting to hold seats in states that would normally be safely red, so they have put their money there instead. That is a big reason the Minnesota contest has been quieter than the Senate races in Texas, Iowa and Kansas, even though it could help decide which party controls the Senate. The election is Nov. 3.

Trump loomed over the debate. Tafoya said when she entered the race that she would be honored to have his endorsement, but in recent months she has tried to create distance. That got harder this week when Trump, speaking at a rally in Ohio, railed against members of Minnesota's Somali community, whom he accused of looting welfare programs, and urged people to vote for Tafoya. Asked at the debate whether she would campaign with Trump if he comes to Minnesota, Tafoya did not answer. Flanagan seized on it. "Minnesotans are smarter than this new version of Michele Tafoya who has shown up in the final weeks of this campaign," she said. "Give me a break."

Fraud was Tafoya's main line of attack. About 70 people have been convicted of bilking millions of dollars from state programs in the last few years, and critics have questioned why the Walz administration did not respond faster. "This historic fraud happened under her watch, and suddenly, she's looking out for Medicaid and SNAP? Sell it to someone else, Peggy," Tafoya said. Flanagan has said the issue was not under her purview as lieutenant governor.

Immigration enforcement is also still on the ballot. The Trump administration cited the fraud as one reason for its monthlong immigration crackdown in Minnesota last winter. That surge has since been eclipsed by the economy and the cost of living, but it still resonates. Flanagan has praised the large-scale protests against ICE in the state and has called for the agency to be dismantled. Tafoya has criticized how the surge was carried out and addressed the fatal shootings of Americans Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration agents. Reporting from the debate says the candidates also sparred over foreign policy, violent crime and health care.