Michele Tafoya, the Republican candidate for Minnesota's open U.S. Senate seat and a longtime NFL sideline reporter, told Newsmax Friday that Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is caught in "a pattern" of exclusion by her WNBA peers even as she hits career highs this season.

"She was left off the [2024] U.S. Olympic basketball team. She was left off the 30th anniversary poster of the WNBA, even though it is really attributable to her that their television ratings are up, that their crowds are bigger, that the paychecks are higher for all these players," Tafoya told "Rob Schmitt Tonight."

The poster snub has been tied by some reports to a licensing restriction on Clark's image rather than a deliberate omission.

Clark finished second in this year's fan vote and third among media, while her scoring and field goal percentage both reached career highs, WNBA voting data released Thursday showed.

"A year after her fellow players ranked her ninth among guards in All-Star voting, she is now ranked 11th among her peers," Tafoya said. "That, if nothing else, shows you how ridiculous this all is."

Tafoya compared Clark's reception to golfer Tiger Woods' early years on the PGA Tour, when rivals "kind of go, 'Who is this young guy who's stealing all the attention?'"

She called the dynamic "the politics of envy," saying Clark's fame and endorsements, including a State Farm deal, have not earned her peers' appreciation.

"They hate her for it," Tafoya said.

Asked about what's going on in her home state with Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, Tafoya turned to last month's pardon of Tou Lue Vang, 42, a Laotian national convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for repeatedly assaulting a 10-year-old girl.

The Minnesota Board of Pardons, made up of Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, voted unanimously June 10 to grant the pardon, a week before Vang's scheduled deportation, on the recommendation of the state's Clemency Review Commission.

"What Tim Walz did and participating in that pardon is obscene," Tafoya said. "He raped a 10-year-old girl repeatedly. This child's innocence was lost."

The pardon removed the conviction that made Vang eligible for removal, and Walz's office has pointed to a letter from the victim expressing forgiveness as significant to the decision, while Ellison's office disputes DHS' assertion that the pardon guarantees Vang will avoid deportation.

"You don't pardon. You deport," Tafoya said, calling for accountability for the victim. As of Friday, federal officials had not said whether they would pursue further action to remove Vang from the country.

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