Republican Senate candidate Michele Tafoya confronted Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan during their only scheduled debate Friday, pressing her to take responsibility for fraud scandals that have drained hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from state welfare programs over the past two terms.
When asked whether she bore any ownership over the fraud, Flanagan, a Democrat, deflected to Gov. Tim Walz. “The governor’s been very clear that the buck stops with him. He was the one who had oversight here,” she said. She pointed to her own work overseeing school meal programs as an area where she “took the lead.”
That answer became a liability. School lunch programs were among the welfare initiatives exploited by scammers connected to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit at the center of a scheme that cost taxpayers an estimated $250 million in COVID-era funds. In December 2025, then-US Attorney Joe Thompson said as much as $9 billion in taxpayer money may have been stolen from state coffers since 2018 — the same year Walz was first elected governor.
“They didn’t get lunch from Feeding Your Future,” Tafoya responded. “Listen, I am going to Washington to be an equal opportunity pain in the ass to any corrupt, career politician. I don’t care which side of the aisle they’re on or which office they hold. Only one of us let $9 billion walk out the door to fraud.”
Tafoya argued Flanagan could not distance herself from the scandal given her position as “second in charge” in the state. “She was second in charge in this state, and she’s just going to point her finger at Gov. Tim Walz, when she demanded it be the Walz-Flanagan administration, when she demanded to be in the room where everything happened,” Tafoya said. “But suddenly she has nothing to with this? My goodness sell it to someone else.”
Flanagan had earlier told debate moderators she was “angry too” about the misuse of taxpayer funds. “The governor said that more should have been done and more should have been done sooner,” she said. “And I agree with him.”
The exchange marked the most pointed moment of the candidates’ first and only scheduled debate this cycle. According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Flanagan currently leads Tafoya by 2.6 percentage points.
Tafoya, a longtime sideline reporter for networks including NBC Sports’ “Sunday Night Football,” entered the Senate race in January. Flanagan has served as lieutenant governor under Walz since January 2019.
