ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – In interviews with KTTC, Minnesota’s two U.S. Senate candidates named different top priorities from voters ahead of the general election Tuesday. DFL candidate Peggy Flanagan said voters talked with her about healthcare as their top issue. Republican candidate Michele Tafoya said voters spoke with her about fraud, followed by crime, as the top issue.
Flanagan: healthcare
“The top issue is healthcare,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan said she did not start the race supporting Medicare for all, but traveling the state, particularly greater Minnesota and rural communities, changed that.
Flanagan described talking with a librarian who is married to a farmer, bought insurance on the open market, and has a $16,000 annual deductible.
“I think the first order of business is to roll back these cuts to Medicaid, which are going to 170,000 Minnesotans who are losing their health care, as well as putting rural hospitals, clinics, nursing homes at risk,” Flanagan said. “And then we’re going to push to ban prior authorization so that a guy behind a desk or an AI bot can’t determine whether you get the health care your doctors prescribed. And ultimately, we need Medicare for all.”
Tafoya: fraud and crime
“No question, it’s been fraud with a very close second being crime,” Tafoya said.
Tafoya cited recent shootings in the suburbs.
“The homecoming game in Eden Prairie, where we had Somali gang violence,” she said.
Tafoya said the fraud has affected and angered voters on multiple levels because it’s their tax money that was stolen.
“The programs that were gutted, the people that were supposed to get these dollars, people who truly needed them, didn’t get them,” Tafoya said. “So, on so many levels, this has really enraged voters and made them feel like, ‘I’m paying exceedingly high taxes as it is across Minnesota. And this is how you manage my money’?”
Campaigning in southeast Minnesota
Both candidates spoke about their campaign efforts in southeast Minnesota.
Flanagan said the campaign hosted several events in locations like Rochester, Winona, and Red Wing. Flanagan said voters in southeastern Minnesota and across the state spoke with her about the increased cost of living and rising diesel prices.
“Our farmers are pretty good at navigating the weather. They shouldn’t have to also deal with the chaos coming out of Washington, DC,” Flanagan said.
Tafoya said the campaign has been to Rochester many times and to southwest Minnesota. Tafoya said many conversations in Rochester center around healthcare given it’s the home of Mayo Clinic.
“There’s a lot of frustration with the status quo of healthcare. There’s a lot of frustration that Medicaid dollars were stolen by fraudsters,” Tafoya said. “There is no way that patients should be having to decide between paying the rent or buying groceries or paying their health care. We got to get rid of the price gougers.”
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