Michele Tafoya slams Tim Walz’s testimony on Minnesota fraud scandal

EXCLUSIVE: Minnesota Republican Senate candidate Michele Tafoya slammed Gov. Tim Walz’s testimony on the massive fraud scandal roiling Minnesota during a contentious House hearing on Wednesday and outlined her plan to combat fraud, which she says voters have been clamoring about on the campaign trial. 

House Oversight Committee Republicans grilled Walz over allegations he knowingly permitted the sprawling fraud scheme to continue under his watch despite repeated warnings from whistleblowers. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison also testified under oath at the hearing. 

“Seeing Tim Walz testify today on fraud was everything I expected it to be: dodging, giving answers that were incomplete, not having information at his disposal, simply kind of passing the buck and taking credit for people behind bars that really he had nothing to do with,” Tafoya told Digital in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

“This is par for the course for Tim Walz,” Tafoya said. “This is why he is no longer running for governor for a third term. It was more of the same. Same with A.G. Keith Ellison.”

Tafoya, a longtime former NFL sideline reporter, recently launched a campaign for Minnesota’s open Democratic-held Senate seat. She is vowing to crack down on the fraud scheme involving the state’s welfare programs, which unfolded during the tenure of Walz and his deputy, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. Tafoya could face Flanagan, a progressive Democrat running for the state’s open Senate seat, in the November general election.

Federal prosecutors allege fraudsters stole as much as $9 billion in taxpayer money and have charged nearly 100 individuals in various Minnesota fraud-related cases, mostly of whom are of Somali descent.

Digital exclusively obtained a three-part anti-fraud plan from Tafoya’s campaign, which she is promising to enact if elected to the Senate in November.

Tafoya said she would cosponsor the Deporting Fraudsters Act, which would allow for noncitizens who are convicted of fraud to be deported and barred from entering the United States. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, R-Tex., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced the legislation in 2025, but the bill has since stalled in the Senate.

 “If you are an immigrant in this country, you are a guest of this country, and you are convicted of defrauding the American people, you will be deported,” Tafoya said. 

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz testifies during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in the U.S. Capitol Building on March 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. The committee held the hearing to examine the alleged misuse of federal funds intended for Minnesota social services and Medicaid programs. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Tafoya is also pledging to crack down on Americans convicted of stealing taxpayer money. She told Digital that she would work to enact new mandatory minimum sentences for those involved in fraud schemes. 

“This is not a second-class crime anymore,” the Minnesota Republican added. “This deserves the full weight of the law.”

Thirdly, Tafoya voiced support for the Trump administration’s recent moves to temporarily halt hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to states that fail to implement anti-fraud controls. 

The Trump administration recently announced it would withhold roughly $260 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota until the state government puts guardrails in place to eliminate fraud. Federal officials have said the state could see more than $1 billion in deferred payments if Walz fails to comply with the president’s “war on fraud.”

Though Minnesota voters tend to favor Democrats at the federal level, Tafoya argued the fraud scandal gives Republicans an opening to flip the seat. Senate Republicans are also targeting Democratic-held seats in Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire during the midterms. 

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Michele Tafoya is seen before an NFL football game when she worked as an NBC Sports reporter, on Nov. 25, 2021, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman, File)

“When I go and talk to people around the state of Minnesota and the word fraud comes up, there is an audible sort of hum or roar of disapproval,” Tafoya said. “People are sick to their stomach over it, and I think it really is driving people to the polls this November.”

Tafoya, who is backed by Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, is expected to cruise to the general election despite facing a crowded field of candidates. On the Democratic side, Flanagan and Rep. Angie Craig are engaged in a bitter fight for the party’s nomination ahead of the August primary.

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