Former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya has launched her campaign for the U.S. Senate
BySTEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press
Headlines from ABC News LiveCatch up on the developing stories making headlines.
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya launched her campaign for the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, hoping to win the Republican nomination for the Minnesota seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith.
“For years, I covered the biggest football games in America,” Tafoya said in a video posted on social media. “I walked the sidelines when the pressure was mounting and the stakes were the highest. That job taught me about more than football. It taught me about how leadership really works. When leaders are prepared and accountable, teams succeed. When they aren’t, people pay the price.”
Tafoya, who’s long been active in Minnesota Republican politics, is best known for her work from 2011-2022 as a sideline reporter for NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Other Republicans in the race include former NBA player Royce White, who lost to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 2024, and military veterans Adam Schwarze and Tom Weiler.
On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan are competing for their party’s nomination to succeed Smith, who announced last February that she wouldn’t seek another term.
Second lady Usha Vance announces she is pregnant with 4th child
Usha Vance wrote on social media that “our family is growing!”
ByMichelle Stoddart and Alexandra Hutzler
Second lady Usha Vance pregnantVance and her husband, Vice President JD Vance, announced they will welcome their fourth child this summer.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance announced Tuesday that they are expecting their fourth child, a boy, due this summer.
“We’re very happy to share some exciting news. Our family is growing!” Usha Vance wrote in a post on social media sharing a statement from the couple.
“Usha and the baby are doing well, and we are all looking forward to welcoming him in late July,” their statement read.
“During this exciting and hectic time, we are particularly grateful for the military doctors who take excellent care of our family and for the staff members who do so much to ensure that we can serve the country while enjoying a wonderful life with our children,” they added.
JD and Usha Vance met while studying at Yale Law School and got married in 2014. They share three young children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.
The vice president often speaks about his family and marriage, and has been a leading voice in the Trump administration’s efforts to encourage the public to have more children.
JD Vance is a dad of 3: What to know about his wife, kids
“I want more babies in the United States of America. I want more happy children in our country, and I want –and I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them. And it is the task of our government to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids, to bring them into the world and to welcome them as the blessings that we know they are here at the March for Life,” Vance said in one of the first speeches of his vice president at the March for Life event in Washington last year.
Vance will headline the 2026 March for Life event this weekend.
Usha Vance’s pregnancy announcement comes weeks after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced she is expecting her second child. Leavitt said in a social media post in December that she is due in May.
Leavitt on Tuesday shared the Vance’s pregnancy announcement on X.
The White House social media account posted in response to the second couple’s announcement, “The most pro-family administration in history! CONGRATULATIONS.”
Virginia tradition calls for morning suits at an inauguration. But Spanberger switched things up
Virginia’s governors traditionally wear morning suits for their inaugurations
ByThe Associated Press
Headlines from ABC News LiveCatch up on the developing stories making headlines.
The Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia’s governors traditionally wear morning suits for their inaugurations. But for her swearing-in on Saturday, Gov. Abigail Spanberger, the first woman to fill that role, dressed in white, the color of women’s suffrage.
According to “A Guide to Virginia Protocol and Traditions,” males in the official party wear morning coats, a formal daytime suit with long tails, and women wear dark suits for the inauguration. Many, including the new governor’s husband, kept to that tradition on Saturday.
Spanberger’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment on her inauguration outfit. But in a recent interview with NPR, Spanberger said she wouldn’t continue that tradition.
“I’m not going to wear a morning coat, not to disappoint anyone,” she said.
The new governor’s white outfit, which included a long, white coat with gold buttons, paired with white gloves, appeared to be a nod to the women’s suffrage movement that led to American women securing the right to vote. In her address, Spanberger noted the gravity of the moment and highlighted suffragists’ refusal to give up.
“I maintain an abiding sense of gratitude to those who work, generation after generation, to ensure women could be among those casting ballots, but who could only dream of a day like today,” Spanberger said.
