Trump endorses Michele Tafoya, who once urged him not to run for president again
President Trump endorsed Republican Michele Tafoya in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Monday, about three weeks before the November election.
"You have to vote for Michele Tafoya, who is a very respected person," Mr. Trump said.
Tafoya had a lukewarm reaction to the presidential endorsement, saying she had "heard about that."
"This campaign is about bringing all Minnesotans together whether they voted for President Trump or whether they voted for Kamala Harris," Tafoya added.
Sen. Tina Smith, the Minnesota Democrat whose seat Tafoya is fighting for, criticized the endorsement in a Facebook post.
"Trump endorsed Michele Tafoya because at the end of the day, he knows she'll just do whatever he wants," Smith wrote.
Tafoya's Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, also responded on Facebook. Flanagan said she is asking voters to choose "the future Minnesotans deserve," one without "Trump's chaos and cruelty."
"That's the choice in this race," she added.
Tafoya won the Republican nomination in the Aug. 11 primary. A Republican has not been elected to the U.S. Senate from Minnesota since Norm Coleman in 2002.
Flanagan has sought to tie Tafoya to Mr. Trump. But Tafoya previously called on him not to run for president again, and she has said she is running to represent Minnesota, not to answer to party bosses, lobbyists or special interests, or "even to a president."
Just this week, Tafoya has been running a new ad distancing herself from the GOP and Mr. Trump.
"I am a pro- choice Republican. I am not afraid to stand up to my party. When Trump is right, I will work with him; when he is wrong, I will stand up for Minnesota," Tafoya says in the ad.
While Flanagan appears convinced the endorsement will hurt Tafoya, Republicans aren't as sure.
"The sad political answer is both, so it can cut both ways," Republican analyst Amy Fredriksen said when asked if the president's endorsement will help or hurt Tafoya. "And I think Michelle Tafoya has done a great job in responding to the endorsement."
Polls in the weeks since the primary have shown a tightening race that is within the margin of error.
