WASHINGTON ― Three weeks out from the midterm elections, Minnesota Republican Senate nominee Michele Tafoya is out with a new campaign ad touting her support for abortion rights.

Except she’s publicly praised the demise of Roe v. Wade, vowed to confirm conservative federal judges if elected to the Senate and routinely advocated for a 12-week abortion ban.

“I’m a pro-choice Republican,” she claims in her latest campaign ad, titled “Independent Voice,” which dropped over the weekend. “I’m not afraid to stand up to my party. When Trump is right, I’ll work with him. When he’s wrong, I’ll stand up for Minnesota.”

Tafoya, a former sideline reporter for “Monday Night Football” who became a conservative media personality, has been in the public eye for years. She hosts her own podcast, and has been a guest on other conservative shows. She’s been open about her belief that women should have no choice in getting an abortion after 12 weeks, a much shorter window than the 24-week time frame that reproductive healthcare experts say is safe in most cases. Minnesota currently offers broad protections for women’s access to abortion care.

“I’m a first trimester gal, if you want to call it that,” Tafoya said in May 2026 on conservative political commentator Matt Christiansen’s show.

She made similar comments in September 2025 on her own podcast, stating, “I also believe that we should limit abortion to the first trimester.”

Tafoya echoed those sentiments in February 2024, saying she backs abortion access “up to a point”; in August 2023, saying she thinks “a 12- or 15-week ban is reasonable”; and in June 2023, saying women shouldn’t be allowed to have abortions “beyond 15 weeks.”

Beyond that, Tafoya hailed the fall of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a constitutional right to an abortion. The court overturned the decision in 2022, thanks largely to Trump stacking the court with conservative, pro-life justices he specifically nominated to repeal the 50-year precedent.

“The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision rightly returned the authority over abortion to the states: where it belongs,” she said in a May 2026 letter to Minnesota GOP state delegates.

“While the U.S. Senate does not set Minnesota’s abortion policy, I will never shy away from speaking out against laws that devalue life,” Tafoya continued. “I encourage all of you to hold our candidates for governor, state House, and state Senate accountable on this issue. Ask them directly what they will do to bring greater respect for life and more reasonable protections to Minnesota law.”

The court’s decision kicked the issue to states to decide their own abortion laws, which has resulted in outright bans in 13 states, pregnant women dying as doctors deny them emergency care, women fleeing restrictive states for out-of-state abortion care, and a spike in maternal mortality, particularly among Black women. Trump has celebrated the reversal of Roe v. Wade as one of his great successes.

“I’m in line with President Donald Trump on this issue,” Tafoya said in July 2026 on Political Pitchforks, a conservative talk radio show based in Minnesota.

“Here’s where I will be an ally in the Senate: I am all about confirming conservative, strict constructionist judges, and I am all about voting against taxpayer-funded abortion,” she said, calling Minnesota’s abortion protections “awful” and “barbaric.”

She said the same thing in May 2026 on WCCO News Talk 830: “I will vote against taxpayer funded abortion. I will also continue to vote for conservative judges at every level.”

A Tafoya campaign spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

On the one hand, it’s understandable why Tafoya might be trying to publicly soften her stance on abortion rights at this late stage in her campaign, in a final push to appeal to moderate Republican and even Democratic voters. She’s been closely trailing her opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, for months in the polls. And she’s running in a state that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris carried by 4 percentage points in 2024.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report currently rates this Senate seat “likely Democrat.”

On the other hand, what?

Just this month, Tafoya got a boost from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the state’s “protect life from conception” pro-life group. In its voter guide for the midterm elections, Tafoya appears on page 3, with the group recommending voters support her bid.

She even appeared in a 2024 video for Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, to push back on the idea GOP state legislators would ban abortion if they retook the majority.

And just Monday, the National Right to Life featured a blog post on its website calling Tafoya’s campaign “promising.”

Flanagan, a staunch proponent of abortion rights, tore into Tafoya over the weekend for trying to claim the pro-choice mantle.

“I’ve spent my life fighting for reproductive freedom, and I’ll be damned if Michele Tafoya calls herself pro-choice on my watch,” the Minnesota Democrat said at a press event with Planned Parenthood Action Fund president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson, along with Rep. Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.), an ob-gyn doctor.

“You don’t get to tell anti-abortion Republicans one thing in the spring and tell Minnesota voters the opposite in October,” said Flanagan. “Her stance is actually perfectly clear: Michele Tafoya supports abortion bans. She supports what Donald Trump has done to millions of women. And she’s pledged to vote for more anti-abortion judges.”

Whether Tafoya wanted it or not, Trump, whose approval ratings are at an all-time low amid voter anger over the economy, endorsed her on Monday at an Ohio rally.

“You have to vote for Michele Tafoya, who’s a very respected person,” the president told the crowd in Youngstown. “It’s hard to win because they cheat on their elections, too. You know, I thought I won in Minnesota three times.”

(Minnesotans did not cheat in their elections. Trump just lost three times.)

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