Peggy Flanagan could be Minnesota’s first female governor, country’s first Native female governor

From the outset of their political pairing, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has been beside Gov. Tim Walz as a visible and trusted teammate.

“I have always felt like a partner,” Flanagan said Tuesday. “I have always felt that my opinions are valued. I think you can see my fingerprints all over a lot of our policies and legislative victories.”

Together, the DFLers ran two successful statewide campaigns and navigated a global pandemic, chaotic civil unrest and a historic legislative session in which they, along with their DFL colleagues in the House and Senate, passed a long list of progressive bills.

With the announcement Tuesday that Walz would join Vice President Kamala Harris on the national ticket, Flanagan could make history herself. If the national ticket wins the White House, Flanagan, 44, would then become governor, the first woman to hold the position in Minnesota and, as a member of the White Earth Nation, she’d be the first Native American woman governor in the nation.

“For all second-in-commands, your number one role is to be ready,” Flanagan said. “And I take that seriously.”

Flanagan was a student at the University of Minnesota when she first became active in progressive politics as a community organizer for U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone’s campaign in 2002. She went on to serve four years on the Minneapolis School Board before working as the executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund and winning election to the Minnesota House representing her native St. Louis Park.

She joined Walz, 60, on the statewide ticket for 2018, adding gender and generational diversity. The two successfully won re-election in 2022.

Traditionally, lieutenant governors were nearly invisible or confined to ribbon cuttings and ceremonial events. But Flanagan has been with Walz in public and next to him at cabinet meetings.

Flanagan said she heard on TV that Harris had chosen Walz for a running mate while Flanagan was on her first day of a Rhode Island vacation with her husband, Tom Weber, and daughter, Siobhan. She caught a flight home immediately, attending a rally and watch party at a St. Paul union hall for the first Harris-Walz event. The gathering occurred in the same room where she met Walz more than two decades ago when he attended Camp Wellstone in preparation for his congressional run.

Flanagan said she spoke briefly with Walz after the announcement. “It was really just kind of a giddy, fun call,” she said. “He said, ‘We just keep doing the work.’”

She doesn’t expect much to change immediately other than Minnesotans might see “a little bit more” of her while Walz is away. “But we’ve really been partners for the last five years and I think have changed the role of lieutenant governor and how the governor and lieutenant governor worked together,” she said.

Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, now a strategist, said she doesn’t question Flanagan’s readiness or preparation, but is concerned about the whirlwind change. “She’s not in charge and then suddenly she’s in charge of everything,” Koch said, describing what would happen if Walz leaves.

Flanagan’s going to have to shoulder the work and would have a tough transition, Koch said. The governor’s budget is due in January, the legislative session starts Jan. 14 and Walz’s focus would be on his new job rather than helping with the transition as departing governors do.

“He’s going to be busy transitioning his administration. And he’s going to a take a lot of his staff so the help in the transition is going to be none,” Koch said.

By public appearances, Walz and Flanagan have had a smooth relationship. Asked what they disagree on, Flanagan said two things: She’s a Pronto Pup person and he likes corn dogs. Also, he enjoys igniting fireworks, she does not.

Where Walz is often the more boisterous public presence, Flanagan is reserved, friendly and thoughtful. She connects with audiences through personal stories or by offering a kind word.

When she advocated for free meals for students, she often noted her own childhood as the only child of a single mom who skipped meals, claiming she wasn’t hungry or had eaten earlier, so her daughter would have enough food.

In a nod to her Native heritage, Flanagan wears elaborate earrings. As a devout fan of his music, she wore Prince-themed beaded earrings for a bill signing at Paisley Park. She recently trimmed her long, wavy locks into a short bob, making the earrings more visible.

Andrea Mokros is a longtime friend of Flanagan’s, Democratic strategist and executive at Fairview Health Services. Mokros said Flanagan knows how to navigate both the policy and politics of the State Capitol. “Everything about who she is has prepared her for this,” Mokros said.

At the Legislature, Flanagan succeeded fellow DFL state Rep. Ryan Winkler of St. Louis Park. The two had worked closely on a campaign to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour and tie automatic increases to inflation. The law passed in 2014.

At the Children’s Defense Fund, she laid the groundwork for a lot of the policies that Harris and Walz will highlight from the 2023 Legislature, including paid family medical leave, Winkler said.

“She’s dynamic. She’s energetic. She is charismatic and she has her priorities right,” Winkler said.

He said that her groundbreaking status would not be defining. “It doesn’t really say what’s best about her, which is that she understands people’s struggles and she dedicates herself to making a difference,” Winkler said.

Both Winkler and Mokros said Flanagan will stay true to herself regardless of her role. “What you see is not a façade that she’s putting on. It is who she is,” Mokros said.

For now, Flanagan said she and Walz will remain in close contact every day. “Tim Walz is the governor until he’s not the governor,” she said. “And that would happen when he’s elected vice president. So we’ll cross that bridge, but there are a lot of things that have to happen between now and then.”

Flanagan, who said she was the first surrogate for Harris at a Phoenix event recently, said she expects to work hard to help the Harris-Walz ticket and to help the DFL in Minnesota.

“We are in an incredibly important moment in this country where we see a woman of color, a second in command, who is running for president of the United States,” Flanagan said. “She has shattered glass ceilings. I’m grateful to her.”

She said she’d be honored to serve as governor, “but sometimes it’s hard to believe that there hasn’t been a woman governor of Minnesota and a Native American woman elected in the country, so we’ve got some work to do.”