Peggy Flanagan

Peggy Flanagan (; born September 22, 1979) is an American politician and Native American activist serving as the 50th lieutenant governor of Minnesota since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Flanagan served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019.

Flanagan grew up in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota, an inner-ring suburb of Minneapolis. She is a citizen of the White Earth Nation. She got her start as a community organizer organizing the urban indigenous community, including for U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone's 2002 reelection campaign. Flanagan was elected to and served on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board from 2005 to 2009. In 2015, she was elected to the Minnesota House, representing a section of Minneapolis's western inner-ring suburbs.

Flanagan was elected lieutenant governor in 2018 and reelected in 2022, both times as Tim Walz's running mate, becoming the first woman of color elected to statewide office in Minnesota, and the highest-ranking Native American woman in elected office in the nation. On February 13, 2025, Flanagan announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat to which Tina Smith has declined to run for reelection in 2026.

Early life and education

Flanagan was born on September 22, 1979, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, where she was raised by her mother, Patricia Elizabeth Flanagan, a lifelong DFL activist who worked for Hubert Humphrey. Her father was Marvin Manypenny, an American Indian land rights and sovereignty activist.She is of Irish and Ojibwe descent and is a citizen of the White Earth Nation. Flanagan is a graduate of St. Louis Park High School and received a bachelor's degree in child psychology and American Indian studies from the University of Minnesota in 2002.

Early political career

While in college, Flanagan worked on U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone's campaign, eventually becoming an organizer for the urban Native American community. After college, she worked for the Minnesota Council of Churches, performing outreach work between Native American families and the Minneapolis public school system.

In her first run for elective office, Flanagan won a seat on the board of Minneapolis Public Schools in 2004. In a six-candidate field that featured two incumbents, the political newcomer Flanagan garnered the most votes. She was elected along with Lydia Lee and incumbent Sharon Henry-Blythe and served one term on the board, from 2005 to 2009. In 2008, she challenged incumbent Minnesota Representative Joe Mullery in the Democratic primary, but dropped out of the race due to her mother's health problems. After working a handful of other jobs, Flanagan joined Wellstone Action as a trainer of activists, organizers, and candidates. She was then appointed to briefly serve on the school board again from 2010 until 2011. As executive director of Children's Defense Fund-Minnesota, she also advocated for the successful 2014 effort to raise Minnesota's minimum wage. In 2016, she began training for The Management Center, helping social justice leaders build and run effective, equitable, and sustainable organizations.

Minnesota House of Representatives

Flanagan was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives unopposed in a special election on November 3, 2015, and sworn in on November 9. Susan Allen (Rosebud) and Republican Steve Green (White Earth Ojibwe) were the only other Natives in the Minnesota State House at that time.

Three other Native women sought election to the Minnesota legislature in November 2016: Mary Kelly Kunesh-Podein ( Standing Rock Lakota) and Jamie Becker-Finn ( Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) ran for state representative seats and Chilah Brown ( Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) ran for the Minnesota Senate. Kunesh-Podein and Becker-Finn were elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives and took office in January 2017.

In 2017, Flanagan, Allen, Kunesh-Podein and Beck-Finn formed the Minnesota House Native American Caucus to represent issues of both urban and rural Native Americans and their other constituents.

2016 Democratic National Convention

Flanagan was invited to address the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 28, 2016. She was the second Native American woman to address the DNC, after Denise Juneau in 2012.

Lieutenant governor of Minnesota

Elections

In 2017, Flanagan became a candidate for lieutenant governor, joining U.S. Representative Tim Walz, who won the DFL primary in the 2018 Minnesota gubernatorial election. In the general election, Walz and Flanagan defeated the Republican nominees, Jeff Johnson and Donna Bergstrom. Walz and Flanagan were reelected in 2022.

2024 Democratic National Convention

Flanagan was one of four chairs of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Political positions

Flanagan has been described as a progressive Democrat.

Flanagan is an advocate for Indigenous peoples' rights. While a legislator, she sponsored the creation of a task force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Later, she sponsored a mandate for tribal consultation in state affairs and as lieutenant governor created the nation's first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office.

Flanagan has also been an advocate for expanded childcare support. While a legislator, she authored several bills for employer-provided childcare and state-sponsored childcare assistance.

Flanagan supports transgender rights and providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth. She supported Walz's executive order protecting access to gender-affirming care for adults and youth.

Personal life

Flanagan has a daughter with her former husband, Tim Hellendrung. The marriage ended in 2017. She resides in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Flanagan is Catholic and attends St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Maple Grove.

On January 12, 2018, Flanagan announced on her personal Facebook page that she was in a relationship with the Minnesota Public Radio News host Tom Weber; MPR News announced that day that it was reassigning Weber to no longer cover "the governor's race, the Legislature, potential legislation, public policy involving the executive or legislative branches or any topic related to the November 2018 election." Flanagan married Weber in September 2019.

Flanagan's brother, Ron Golden, died of COVID-19 in 2020. His death was the second one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Tennessee.

Awards

In February 2020, the National Congress of American Indians gave Flanagan the Native American Leadership Award for her work raising awareness of Native issues and improving lives of Indigenous people.

In July 2020, Flanagan received the Dr. B. Robert Lewis Award from the Minnesota Public Health Association for her work on addressing inequities in public health.

Electoral history

See also

* List of minority governors and lieutenant governors in the United States
* List of Native American politicians

Notes

References

External links

Government website

Campaign website

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flanagan, Peggy
1979 births
21st-century American women politicians
Lieutenant governors of Minnesota
Living people
Democratic Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives
Native American state legislators in Minnesota
Native American women in politics
People from St. Louis Park, Minnesota
School board members in Minnesota
University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni
Women state legislators in Minnesota
20th-century Native American women
20th-century Native American people
21st-century Native American women
21st-century Native American politicians
Ojibwe women
Ojibwe activists
White Earth Nation people
Native American Roman Catholics
Catholics from Minnesota
American people of Irish descent
21st-century members of the Minnesota Legislature