Michele Tafoya, an NFL sideline reporter turned MAGA candidate, is under renewed scrutiny over her “tone-deaf” Starbucks talking points after she won her primary election.
Tafoya, 61, the Republican nominee for Senate in Minnesota, declared in March that Americans feeling the economic strain under President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, which has caused gas and oil prices to skyrocket, should simply go to Starbucks less.
“Maybe you take one less trip to Starbucks, and so that gas goes a little further, until this thing is over and these gas prices come back down again,” Tafoya suggested. “Let’s just try to be patriots about this. Whether you agree with it or not, we’re there, and we’ve got to support our men and women in uniform. That’s a big one.”
After her primary win, those comments were aired on MS NOW, prompting renewed scrutiny.
“Ah there it is. Every time. There wasn’t a Starbucks out in the town I stopped by last week. No bus stops or subway. No, just people barely surviving because they can’t afford to drive to work now,” Fred Wellman, a Democrat running for Congress in Missouri, responded.
“When you’re rich it’s an inconvenience. When you’re just trying to make ends meet, you’re not patriotic. Stop electing out-of-touch politicians,” he added.
“Good grief tone deaf. She might as well said let them eat cake,” one user wrote online.
“What if I didn’t go to Starbucks before this war? What should I give up? Driving? Maybe lunch? I eat at home and that’s expensive. Just trying to do my part,” another person sarcastically wrote online.
Tafoya, a former sideline reporter for NBC Sports’ Sunday Night Football, beat her primary opponent Adam Schwarze by 28 points in Tuesday’s primary election.
She will face Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a progressive Democrat, in the 2026 midterm election as they race to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith.
Tafoya was formerly a Trump critic, even going as far as to support Trump’s one-time political enemy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
But she has since gone full MAGA as she tries to become the first GOP Senator from Minnesota in nearly two decades. Republicans frequently target the state as a potential pickup, believing they can flip it red, but have yet to run a successful statewide campaign in recent election cycles.
Republicans are hoping that a state fraud scandal will give them a better chance this year.
“We’ve had a crisis of leadership here. We’ve seen what career politicians have done in this state,” Tafoya told reporters after casting her ballot on Tuesday. “They’ve brought us to a place of national embarrassment, and this state is ready for change.”
