Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, could become the first US female Indigenous governor if Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz, resigns from office. Walz can continue serving as the state’s governor until the November election, but if he and Harris are successful, Flanagan will take over his gubernatorial duties.
In fact, a series of firsts would be triggered should the Harris-Walz ticket win: Harris would become the nation’s first woman, first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to ascend to the country’s top office. Flanagan, already the highest-ranking Native woman in a state-level executive office, would become Minnesota’s first female governor and the first Indigenous woman to serve as governor of a US state. And Minnesota’s senate president, Bobby Joe Champion, would become Minnesota’s first Black lieutenant governor.
Considered an advocate for children, working families and Indigenous communities, Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, has had a tenure as lieutenant governor that reflects her support for historically marginalized Minnesotans.
In June, Flanagan and Tina Smith, a US senator, announced the first international United States Department of Agriculture trade mission focused on amplifying Indigenous products. Flanagan advocated for free breakfast and lunch in Minnesota schools, which Walz signed into law in March 2021. And in 2019, Walz signed a bill, of which Flanagan was a champion, to launch the first official meeting of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force.
“Too often native women at best are invisible and, at worst, we are disposable,” Flanagan has said. “That must and that will change.”
Flanagan also advocated to establish the country’s first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, which Walz signed into law legislation in 2021. And last December, Flanagan was voted in as chair of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association (DLGA), becoming the first Indigenous woman to lead a party committee.
“Our democracy functions best when it accurately reflects the community and seeks to represent,” Flanagan said at the time. “And so for a very long time, women, people of color, Indigenous folks were not at decision-making tables, and too many decisions were made without us. I think if we’re going to have strong policies and strong outcomes for communities, women and Bipoc folks need to be at the table.”
Flanagan, a former Minneapolis school board member, a previous staffer at Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches’ division of Indian work, and a past executive director of Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota, successfully ran for the state’s house of representatives in 2015. In 2017, she became a founding member of the state’s first People of Color and Indigenous Caucus, according to her official bio.
As a University of Minnesota student, Flanagan organized the urban Indigenous community for Paul Wellstone’s 2002 US Senate campaign. She graduated from the university that year with a degree in American Indian studies and child psychology.
Just two days after Biden bowed out of the 2024 race, Flanagan hosted the first Native American campaign event for the Harris for President campaign.
“Great Native Voters for Harris event in Phoenix! Arizona may decide the election, but one thing is for sure: Native voters will decide Arizona,” Flanagan wrote on X. “In a packed room, I was honored to kick off the first-ever surrogate event for Harris 2024 in the country! Let’s go, @KamalaHarris!”
Later she spoke during a Native women and Two Spirit for Harris virtual call, which connected Indigenous leaders and people from across the country in rallying behind the Democratic nominee.
“I think Native voters are going to make the difference again,” Flanagan said on the call. “We are strategically located in swing states all across the country, and I know that when Indian Country shows up, we win.”
