Beltrami County GOP hears from Senate hopefuls in local visits
Three Senate hopefuls came through Beltrami County in one week, giving local Republicans an early look at a race that will shape Minnesota’s next U.S. Senate seat.
Beltrami County Republicans spent a week putting three GOP Senate hopefuls in front of local activists, first hearing from Adam Schwarze and Matt York at the party office in the Paul Bunyan Mall on May 11, then Michele Tafoya at the Countryside Restaurant on May 16.
The visits came after Sen. Tina Smith announced on Feb. 13, 2025, that she would not seek reelection, opening a Minnesota Senate race that will go to the Aug. 11, 2026, primary and the Nov. 3, 2026, general election. With candidate filing for the fall ballot running from May 19 through June 2, the Beltrami County GOP was not just watching the race from a distance, it was helping bring it into the room.
That mattered in a county with 46,228 residents in the 2020 census and an estimated 47,055 in July 2025, where Bemidji serves as county seat and portions of the Leech Lake and Red Lake Indian reservations lie within county lines. In places like that, Senate hopefuls have to speak to voters beyond the Twin Cities and show they can connect with both small-town and tribal communities.
Tafoya arrived with the highest national profile. Her campaign says she is a four-time Emmy Award-winning broadcaster and a record-setting NFL sideline reporter, and mid-May reporting said her support from national Republicans has become a point of tension inside Minnesota GOP circles. That made her stop in Beltrami County a useful test of whether she can win over rural conservatives who will matter in a statewide primary.
Schwarze also came into the race with a visible operation. His campaign calls him a lifelong Minnesotan and veteran, and Federal Election Commission data show his committee had raised $1,102,851.14 through March 31, 2026. Ballotpedia lists Schwarze and Mark York among the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, underscoring how crowded the field already is.
For Beltrami County Republicans, the week’s events served as a live audition of a race that will be decided far from Bemidji but will still depend on places like it. The candidates who can translate biography, money and party backing into rural support will have the clearest path through northern Minnesota.
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