EDINA, MN - As socialist candidates continue to score victories across the country and take more control of the Democratic Party, Minnesota GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya is making her pitch to voters from all parties who still believe in "common sense."
"We do not want to see a socialist lurch anywhere in this country, and in particular in Minnesota, so I will do whatever I can to stand up against this movement toward Democrat socialism," Tafoya told Fox News Digital on Tuesday shortly after voting in a suburb outside Minneapolis. "Socialism does not work."
"There is absolutely a home for every voter in Minnesota that wants common sense, that wants a return to sanity, that wants to see kids learn in school again, that wants accountability for this fraud, who wants the fraud never repeat itself, who wants crime rates to go down again," Tafoya told Fox News Digital. "There is room for you. We are the common sense candidacy and we're gonna represent a lot more than just conservatives in this state."
Hours later, Tafoya went from Republican Senate candidate to Republican Senate nominee as she convincingly won her primary and moves on to face Minnesota Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the general election in November.
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When reached by phone after her victory, Tafoya reiterated her commitment to crossing party lines to reach disaffected Democrats.
"Our state has been going in the wrong direction at the speed of sound and people who love Minnesota are brokenhearted, and we see that this has happened under the watch of career politicians single-party rule, for many years now they've brought us to this place it's time for change and I think we're going to appeal to voters across the political spectrum to stand up and say we're not going to continue to re-elect the people that got us to this place to begin with," Tafoya told Fox News Digital.
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Tafoya is aiming to become the first Republican to win statewide office in Minnesota since 2006.
Tafoya's opponent in November, progressive Minnesota Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, has drawn criticism over the massive fraud scandal in the state that forced Gov. Tim Walz to drop his re-election bid, given that she has served alongside him since 2019, as well as her far-left positions that include abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"It is time to hold them accountable, and we're going to do that by firing them," Tafoya said. "And we're gonna hire people who are outsiders, who are willing to come in and fix this with new ideas and not just bend to party politics as the establishment always does."
Tafoya, whose message to disaffected Democrat voters is similar to the pitch Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers made last week in his race against his opponent Abdul El-Sayed, told Fox News Digital she is looking forward to speaking to Democrats and independents in the coming months.
"When you run in a primary, you're talking to mostly your own voters," Tafoya said. "Now I'm excited to reach out to those disaffected Democrats who feel that the party has left them, who feel like they're homeless politically. We're gonna open the doors to them and I can't wait to talk to all those independents and share their ideas. So that's what I'm looking forward to."