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.

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."

Polls in the weeks since the primary have shown a tightening race that is within the margin of error.