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Updated Sept. 26

The first night of the Democratic National Convention, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz鈥檚 lieutenant governor strode onto the stage to help kick things off. To Minnesotans, Peggy Flanagan has been a constant presence during Walz鈥檚 two terms as governor. But to many delegates in attendance 鈥� and people watching the event from around the world 鈥� hers was a new face.听

鈥淢y name in the Ojibwe language is Gizhiiwewidamoonkwe, or in English, Speaks with a Clear and Loud Voice Woman,鈥� . 鈥淚’m a member of the White Earth Nation and my family is the Wolf Clan. And the role of our clan is to ensure that we never leave anyone behind.鈥�

If Kamala Harris is elected president in November, Flanagan will assume Walz鈥檚 office, making her the first Indigenous woman governor in U.S. history. Since her DNC appearance, headlines in national news outlets have dubbed her Walz鈥檚 鈥渦nderstudy,鈥� a rising party star 鈥渨aiting in the wings鈥� for her turn. 

The actual story is much more interesting. In a rise marked by serendipity, two pivotal moments stand out. The first took place in 2002, when, as a new University of Minnesota graduate, Flanagan was walking past Sen. Paul Wellstone鈥檚 campaign headquarters and decided to stop in. She was 22 and eager to help him win a third term. 

It didn鈥檛 happen. The senator was killed in a plane crash 12 days shy of what seemed certain re-election 鈥� a tragedy that served as prelude to the second defining moment. Wellstone鈥檚 death galvanized a generation of progressive political activists who created an organization, Wellstone Action, dedicated to teaching ordinary people the fundamentals of running a grassroots campaign. 

Flanagan 鈥� who had used the Wellstone formula to become the youngest person ever elected to the Minneapolis School Board 鈥� was working for the candidate incubator in 2005 when a small-town high school teacher and football coach named Tim Walz turned up at one of its boot camps. He was considering a run for Congress as a Democrat in a deep-red southern Minnesota district. . They as each rose through the political ranks. 

As lieutenant governor, Flanagan has been a driving force behind many of the policies now being showcased as the middle-class wins Walz brings to the presidential ticket. Advocacy for kids, vulnerable families and early childhood education have topped her agenda at each stage of her political career. 

The universal free school lunches, child tax credit and paid family and sick leave that Harris and Walz are campaigning on? Good retail politics, certainly 鈥� and also an outgrowth of Flanagan鈥檚 childhood experience knowing that her friends were watching as she handed the lunch ladies the issued to kids who got free food. 

鈥淯niversal school meals is one of the most important things that I’ve ever worked on in my entire career 鈥� removing that shame and that stigma is a powerful tool to make sure that kids are eating right,鈥� Flanagan says. 鈥淎necdotally, we have heard attendance is up. 鈥� And instead of asking if kids have enough money in their account, we are asking, 鈥楧o you want chicken and rice or do you want pizza?鈥� 鈥�

A literal political pedigree

Flanagan grew up at political strategy meetings. Her grandmother, mother and aunts were Irish social-justice Catholics who worked alongside the late Hubert Humphrey in Democratic politics for decades. When Humphrey ran for president in 1968, Flanagan鈥檚 mother, Patricia, moved to Washington, D.C., to work on his campaign.

鈥淚 grew up in a family where women just did the work,鈥� Flanagan says. 鈥淚 didn’t know anything different, right? My grandmother was absolutely the matriarch and was involved in party politics before it was, you know, polite for women to do that work.鈥�

She did not realize that organizing was an activity with a name until she was older and doing it herself, Flanagan continues. 鈥淚t was just like, well, you see a need, and then you bring people together and try to work together to solve the problem.鈥�

Pat Flanagan was a single parent, getting by thanks to Medicaid, a Section 8 housing voucher, food stamps, state child care assistance, free- and reduced-price school lunches and the Minnesota Family Investment Program 鈥� the household subsidy that replaced welfare. She used the benefits to move herself and her daughter to a middle-class suburb of Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, that had good schools and stable neighborhoods. 

Eventually, Pat became a phlebotomist, but struggle shaped Peggy Flanagan鈥檚 views. She has also referred to herself on several occasions, without elaborating, as a 鈥� of domestic violence.鈥� She speaks passionately about her mother鈥檚 insistence that when food was scarce. Somehow, she says frequently, Pat Flanagan always found enough resources to meet her daughter鈥檚 needs.  

If the women in Flanagan鈥檚 life taught her to build coalitions, her father nurtured her sense of resolve. Marvin Manypenny spent to recoup lands swindled from , one of the homes of Minnesota鈥檚 largest indigenous group, the Anishinaabe, who were dubbed Ojibwe by colonists. In 1986, Manypenny sued the U.S. government in a case that chronicled more than a century of betrayed promises by federal officials to respect Native lands. In 1991, an appeals court , ruling that it did not have jurisdiction to decide the claims. 

Manypenny was a frequent fixture at protests and active in tribal politics, but not a consistent voter himself until his daughter鈥檚 name appeared on a statewide ticket as the candidate for lieutenant governor in 2018. 

鈥淢y dad oftentimes would say, 鈥楳y girl, I want to burn down the system, and you want to get into the system and change it from the inside out,鈥� 鈥� Flanagan when he died in 2020. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a pretty good summary of how my dad operated and how I operate.鈥�

When Flanagan walked into Wellstone鈥檚 campaign office, it was with her maternal lineage鈥檚 coalition-building skills and her father鈥檚 spine. Wellstone鈥檚 organizers put her to work mobilizing the urban Native American community. 

A political science professor at Carleton College, located an hour south of the Twin Cities, Wellstone ran a then-unorthodox, bare-bones campaign for U.S. Senate in 1990, ousting two-term Republican Rudy Boschwitz, the owner of a chain of lumber stores. 

Accompanied by an army of door-knockers 鈥� many of them his students 鈥� Wellstone rode an old green school bus around the state, giving stump speeches from a platform on the back. He could afford to air only one TV ad one time, but his grainy, low-budget 鈥淟ooking for Rudy鈥� 鈥� in which he went seeking his rival to set up a debate 鈥� became a news story itself. 

Flanagan was an early linchpin of Wellstone Action鈥檚 grassroots training efforts. A campaign policy aide and longtime friend of the senator鈥檚, Pam Costain traveled the country with Flanagan for several years, teaching people about what they called the Wellstone triangle. Even in her 20s, Costain says, Flanagan had experience with all three legs.

鈥淵ou cannot do electoral politics without an appreciation for what it takes to build grassroots involvement,鈥� she explains. 鈥淎nd you can鈥檛 do [community organizing] work if you’re not willing to contend for power 鈥� because then you’re just always going to be the agitator and not the decision-maker.鈥�

Out of college, Flanagan was employed by the Division of Indian Work, a Twin Cities nonprofit service provider, helping to build relationships between the school system and Native families. She had been encouraged by a longtime Minneapolis School Board member to run for a seat in the 2004 election, but begged off.听听听听听

鈥淚 was like, you know, I’m 23. I don’t have any kids in the district,鈥� Flanagan recalls. 鈥淚 don’t think I’m the one. But I will help you find somebody.鈥�

Not long after that conversation, at a meeting where American Indian Movement founder Clyde Bellecourt was speaking, she raised her hand and told the crowd that if anyone wanted to run for school board, she would help. 鈥淔olks in the room were like, my girl, why don’t you do it?鈥澨�听听

As she drove home from the meeting, Flanagan passed Wellstone鈥檚 former campaign office, where she had stopped to volunteer. She pulled over and decided to run.听

鈥淚 didn’t think we’re going to win,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淏ut at the very least, the issues that are happening in the urban Native community 鈥� will be brought forward. It turned out that a number of people in Minneapolis shared those concerns.鈥澨�

鈥業t wasn鈥檛 a small thing鈥�听

Flanagan was not the first Native person to serve on the board, but her presence made the district鈥檚 ongoing failure to serve its Indigenous students harder to ignore. In the 1970s, Indigenous dropout rates in Minneapolis schools hovered around 80%, fueled by decades of official indifference to the continued legacy of American Indian boarding schools that stripped Native children of their languages and cultures. Mistrust of government-operated schools is still high.听

Bullying and a near-total lack of Native teachers or curriculum fueled truancy rates, sometimes leading to court-ordered removals of Native children from their families. Before its closure in 2008, a free, private alternative school operated by the American Indian Movement graduated more Indigenous students than Minneapolis Public Schools combined.

Flanagan had graduated from high school in St. Louis Park, a suburb located just west of Minneapolis, but she understood what it was like not to see herself represented in the classroom.听听听

鈥淲hen I got to the University of Minnesota, I had for the very first time a teacher who looked like me 鈥� in my intro to American Indian Studies class,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t changed everything. Learning accurate history, knowing that there is a teacher who will absolutely understand who you are and where you come from.鈥澨�

On the school board 鈥� where she served alongside Costain, who had also sought and won a seat 鈥� Flanagan was instrumental in the negotiation of , long in coming, between urban tribal leaders and the district. The first of its kind in the country, it required the school system to create specialized programs aimed at engaging mistrustful families, preserving Native languages and strengthening cultural identity.听

Now the head of the Minneapolis Foundation, R.T. Rybak was in the first of three terms as mayor of Minneapolis when the pact was signed. 鈥淚t wasn’t a small thing to negotiate an agreement between a public school system and Native leaders, because it starts with an extraordinary amount of historical inequity,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat was a very significant achievement.鈥�

American Indian students were guaranteed placement at three schools designated 鈥渂est practices鈥� sites. Educators would be required to interview for positions 鈥� a departure from the strict seniority-based placement system then required by the teachers union contract 鈥� and would have to agree to undertake ongoing, specialized training and observation. To ensure continuity, they were also supposed to be protected from being bumped from their positions during layoff.

At the time, 38% of Minneapolis Public Schools Native students graduated, more than two-thirds of them from alternative schools not operated by the district. The number of Indigenous students graduating from district schools has ticked up slightly in the intervening two decades, but partly because of a change in the way state officials define American Indian. In 2023, 42% graduated, with 14% dropping out and the fate of another 20% unknown.听

Almost half of Minneapolis鈥檚 Native graduates enroll in some postsecondary education within 16 months. But in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, none had earned one year鈥檚 worth of credits within two years. Since 2021, the percentage of Minneapolis Indigenous students reading at grade level has fallen from 22% to 19%, while math proficiency has hovered between 10% and 13%.听听

The agreement between the district and Native leaders , but there is no evidence the staffing exceptions were codified in the teacher contract. Last May, the district鈥檚 American Indian Parent Advisory Committee notified the school board that it considers the schools out of compliance with regarding its obligations to Native students.听

Flanagan鈥檚 elected term on the board ended in 2009, but the following year she was appointed to replace Costain, who had resigned to take over the district鈥檚 nonprofit education partner. At , the board heard on the district鈥檚 racial and ethnic achievement gaps, complete with an estimate that at the incremental pace of change taking place, it would take decades for Minneapolis students to to their peers statewide.

Flanagan had an emotional reaction to the lack of meaningful progress. 鈥淲e know what works for kids. And we鈥檝e just got to be courageous enough to do it, to ask for it, to demand it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f white kids were failing in this district 鈥� at the rate that children of color and Native students are failing, people would be on fire. They would be storming the Capitol, they would be burning that place down.鈥�

In 2013, Marian Wright Edelman, then president of the Children鈥檚 Defense Fund, tapped Flanagan to head its Minnesota branch. During her time with the organization, she spearheaded a successful effort to get lawmakers to raise the state鈥檚 minimum wage 鈥� then $6.15, more than a dollar an hour less than the federal minimum 鈥� and index it to inflation. For large employers, it is now $10.85.

A few months later, Minneapolis鈥檚 new mayor-elect, Betsy Hodges, asked Flanagan to head her 鈥淐radle to K Cabinet,鈥� an effort to in the city.听

鈥淧eggy understood very clearly that one of the challenges of working with prenatal to 3-year-olds is you cannot help and support them without helping and supporting their parents,鈥� says Hodges. 鈥淎nd lots of people love to support young people but do not love to support young people’s parents. When they’re in school, it’s a little easier to heed that reality. But when it’s prenatal to 3, it’s not. So what are the supports parents need to be really effective?鈥�

Flanagan made it clear up front that families鈥� opportunities to shape the cabinet鈥檚 strategies needed to be meaningful. 鈥淲e wanted to have enough parents as part of the group that they didn’t feel like they were being tokenized,鈥� Hodges recalls. 鈥淲e made sure to arrange meetings for times that they would be able to be there. We made sure to have child care. We did our best to set it up in a way where we could get their feedback in a way that didn’t feel dismissive or condescending.鈥�

The pull of public office听

But electoral politics still tugged. In 2015, Flanagan won a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives, serving a handful of suburbs on Minneapolis鈥檚 western boundary, including the one where she grew up. She served until 2019, authoring bills in support of early childhood education and a range of benefits for families. She sponsored just one K-12 education measure, to fund diversity, equity and inclusion training for educators in her home district.听

In 2017, Walz called Flanagan and asked her to run for lieutenant governor. (In Minnesota, the governor and the No. 2 are elected as a ticket.) For many of her predecessors, the job has been a one-way trip to obscurity, but since their inaugurations, Walz and Flanagan have typically been seen together.听

鈥淓very major decision she is there from the beginning and helps me see about them differently and think about them differently,鈥� . 鈥淵ou have a 55-year-old rural white guy who was in the Army [National Guard] and coached football, and you have a 39-year-old Indigenous woman who lived in St. Louis Park. That brings a wealth of [ways] to approach these issues.鈥�

Flanagan has an office in the same Capitol suite as the governor. The White Earth flag hangs in the hall alongside the Stars and Stripes and a new state flag adopted last spring, replacing one that was offensive to Native Minnesotans.听听

Privately, some Republicans have groused that they believe Flanagan pushed Walz to the left politically. Whether that is true is debatable, but her policy priorities have been front and center in the six years since they took office.

One of her first accomplishments as the state鈥檚 second-highest executive was securing the first increase in decades to the Minnesota Family Investment Program, the cash assistance program for low-income families her mother depended on when she was a child. In 2019, lawmakers increased the payments by $100 a month.听

Flanagan also played a key role in ensuring Native history and culture are included in new state social studies standards. Topics differ by grade level and include Indigenous people鈥檚 relationships to land and water, the current state of treaties and American Indian perspectives on the doctrine of Manifest Destiny.

A Flanagan administration鈥檚 priorities听

This year鈥檚 appearance was not Flanagan鈥檚 first DNC speech. In 2016, she took to the stage to read a letter to her daughter Siobhan, then 3. She was still in the state House, and only the second Native woman to address the convention.听

The following year, she told the Minneapolis Native newspaper The Circle that she would run for the House of Representatives seat occupied by Keith Ellison if he did not stand for re-election. She ended up on Walz鈥檚 ticket instead.听

Many of the political wins the governor and lieutenant governor have enjoyed in recent years were possible because Democrats controlled both branches of the state legislature and the executive branch 鈥斕齜y a very slim margin. That could change if Republicans gain control of either the Minnesota House or Senate.

If Flanagan becomes governor, state Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson would like to see more emphasis on closing achievement gaps.听

鈥淲hile Walz and Flanagan both have experience in the education system, their priorities too often focused on satisfying political interests instead of ensuring kids were getting the education they deserved,” he says. 鈥淥nce a leader in education, Minnesota now lags Mississippi in some areas despite years of historic funding increases.鈥�

Flanagan says her priorities will remain the same if Harris and Walz are elected and she becomes governor. High on her list is addressing chronic absenteeism: 鈥淎ttendance matters, especially in the post-pandemic world that we live in.鈥�

She also hopes to promote career and technical education, invest more state aid in kindergarten readiness and continue diversifying the state鈥檚 teacher corps, which has historically been more than 90% white.听听听

Flanagan says her daughter attends the same school system she did but is having a wholly different experience. 鈥淭here are over 40 Native kids in her school,鈥� and Ojibwe language is taught to fourth- and fifth-graders, she says. 鈥淪he can fully show up as her Indigenous self in the classroom and know that she will be valued for who she is, that there will be a curiosity about her identity and culture that is demonstrated in a supportive way.鈥澨�

The change, she adds, benefits all kids. 鈥淚 am hopeful that we are in a place, not only in talking about the history of Native people and ensuring we have Indigenous education for all, but also acknowledging Native people are contemporary people who still exist and who live all across the state,鈥� she says. 鈥淓verybody benefits from learning the full, rich history of our state.鈥�

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