GOP Senate candidate Michele Tafoya reports assets totaling $10.7M to $37.9M

When Michele Tafoya said Americans could handle higher gas prices caused by the war in Iran with a “stiff upper lip” and “one less trip to Starbucks,” she likely wasn’t talking about herself.

The retired sportscaster and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate has assets worth between $10.7 million and $37.9 million, according to her financial disclosure, putting her near or in the top 1% of wealthiest Americans.

Conventional wisdom says an electorate deeply concerned about the cost of living doesn’t want to be told by a multimillionaire to buck up and buy fewer lattes — especially after years of inflation going back to the pandemic and now exacerbated by President Trump’s tariffs, war in Iran and cuts to safety net programs.

“If (candidates) can’t understand and show some connection with voter worries, they’re not going to get very far,” said David Sturrock, a political science professor at Southwest Minnesota State University who has been active in Republican politics.

But Sturrock also said he doesn’t think voters are casting ballots based on a close review of financial disclosures. They’re persuaded by “fleeting impressions” of candidates and their platform.

Congress is full of millionaires from both parties, though Tafoya, 61, is rich even by their standards. The median net worth in the U.S. Senate is about $4.4 million — or more than 70 times the Census-reported median U.S. household net worth — according to a NOTUS analysis of financial disclosures.

DFL candidate Peggy Flanagan, 46, may also be a millionaire, albeit with a far smaller nest egg than Tafoya’s from a career in advocacy and politics. Flanagan has between $990,000 and $2.7 million in assets, according to her financial disclosure, putting her near or in the top 10% of American households.

Flanagan frequently points to her childhood scraping by to connect with voters’ economic concerns. She was raised by a single, working mother in subsidized housing and recalls carrying commodity cheese like a football under her arm.

Seeing how government assistance uplifted her family shaped her economic populist platform: Medicare for all, universal childcare, raising the federal minimum wage and undoing Trump’s cuts to health care and food assistance.

“I know who I’m fighting for,” she said at a rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders. “I’m fighting for the mom standing at the checkout counter trying to stretch 20 bucks through the end of the month.”

Tafoya did not grow up wealthy, either. Her father was an aerospace engineer and her mother was a teacher, according to their obituaries. She told the Star Tribune in 2017 her parents had a “depression-era mind-set where you save everything,” though they weren’t destitute.

She did not respond to requests for comment.

Tafoya and her husband, Mark Vandersall, appear to have amassed their fortune through lucrative careers.

Most of her investments are spread across retirement accounts from her decades working in sports reporting for major networks including ABC, NBC and ESPN and his in private wealth management.

Financial disclosures offer only a fuzzy picture of politicians’ wealth. Federal office holders and candidates don’t report the exact value of each of their investments but rather a broad range. For instance, Tafoya owns somewhere between $1 million and $5 million of a Vanguard index fund in one of her retirement accounts.

Candidates also don’t need to report the value of their primary residence or what they owe on the mortgage, so Tafoya’s disclosure does not include her 5-bedroom, 6-bath home in Edina that she bought with her husband, Mark Vandersall, for $2.2 million in 2008, according to county property records.

Politicians also don’t report the value of personal property like vehicles; federal pensions are exempt; and the accuracy of the reports isn’t strictly policed.

Tafoya reported no income last year, but hosted a political podcast until January on the Salem Podcast Network, which includes shows by other conservative hosts like Sebastian Gorka, Lara Trump and the late Charlie Kirk.

Flanagan reported making $129,000 from the state of Minnesota last year as lieutenant governor. Flanagan and her husband, Tom Weber, bought a home in St. Louis Park for $447,500 in 2023, according to county property records.

Tafoya’s focus on fighting fraud to save taxpayers money could prove to be a potent affordability message, even if the seat she’s running for offers arguably little power over the administration of Minnesota’s safety net programs. She also calls for more cuts to taxes and regulations.

She has so far stood by her March call for Starbucks rationing, however. In an interview last month on KSTP, saying paying higher prices is part of supporting American troops.

“I do think we need to be patriotic about this,” Tafoya said.