Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, might turn out to be the primary US feminine Indigenous governor if Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential choose, Tim Walz, resigns from workplace. Walz can proceed serving because the state’s governor till the November election, but when he and Harris are profitable, Flanagan will take over his gubernatorial duties.
The truth is, a collection of firsts could be triggered ought to the Harris-Walz ticket win: Harris would turn out to be the nation’s first lady, first Black lady and first individual of Indian descent to ascend to the nation’s prime workplace. Flanagan, already the highest-ranking Native lady in a state-level government workplace, would turn out to be Minnesota’s first feminine governor and the primary Indigenous lady to function governor of a US state. And Minnesota’s senate president, Bobby Joe Champion, would turn out to be Minnesota’s first Black lieutenant governor.
Thought of an advocate for kids, working households and Indigenous communities, Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, has had a tenure as lieutenant governor that displays her assist for traditionally marginalized Minnesotans.
In June, Flanagan and Tina Smith, a US senator, introduced the primary worldwide United States Division of Agriculture commerce mission centered on amplifying Indigenous merchandise. Flanagan advocated without cost breakfast and lunch in Minnesota colleges, which Walz signed into regulation in March 2021. And in 2019, Walz signed a invoice, of which Flanagan was a champion, to launch the primary official assembly of the Lacking and Murdered Indigenous Girls Process Power.
“Too usually native girls at greatest are invisible and, at worst, we’re disposable,” Flanagan has mentioned. “That should and that may change.”
Flanagan additionally advocated to determine the nation’s first Lacking and Murdered Indigenous Relations Workplace, which Walz signed into regulation laws in 2021. And final December, Flanagan was voted in as chair of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Affiliation (DLGA), changing into the primary Indigenous lady to steer a celebration committee.
“Our democracy features greatest when it precisely displays the group and seeks to characterize,” Flanagan mentioned on the time. “And so for a really very long time, girls, folks of coloration, Indigenous people weren’t at decision-making tables, and too many choices have been made with out us. I feel if we’re going to have sturdy insurance policies and robust outcomes for communities, girls and Bipoc people must be on the desk.”
Flanagan, a former Minneapolis college board member, a earlier staffer at Better Minneapolis Council of Church buildings’ division of Indian work, and a previous government director of Kids’s Protection Fund-Minnesota, efficiently ran for the state’s home of representatives in 2015. In 2017, she turned a founding member of the state’s first Individuals of Colour and Indigenous Caucus, in response to her official bio.
As a College of Minnesota pupil, Flanagan organized the city Indigenous group for Paul Wellstone’s 2002 US Senate marketing campaign. She graduated from the college that yr with a level in American Indian research and youngster psychology.
Simply two days after Biden bowed out of the 2024 race, Flanagan hosted the primary Native American marketing campaign occasion for the Harris for President marketing campaign.
“Nice Native Voters for Harris occasion in Phoenix! Arizona could determine the election, however one factor is for certain: Native voters will determine Arizona,” Flanagan wrote on X. “In a packed room, I used to be honored to kick off the first-ever surrogate occasion for Harris 2024 within the nation! Let’s go, @KamalaHarris!”
Later she spoke throughout a Native girls and Two Spirit for Harris digital name, which related Indigenous leaders and folks from throughout the nation in rallying behind the Democratic nominee.
“I feel Native voters are going to make the distinction once more,” Flanagan mentioned on the decision. “We’re strategically situated in swing states all throughout the nation, and I do know that when Indian Nation reveals up, we win.”