PERSON: Peggy Flanagan

State of Minnesota

Lieutenant Governor

Peggy Flanagan (born September 22, 1979) is an American politician, community organizer, 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. She is a member of the White Earth Nation and is the first Native American and woman of color to hold statewide office in Minnesota.

Flanagan grew up in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota, an inner-ring suburb of Minneapolis. She attended the University of Minnesota. Flanagan was previously involved in organizing the urban indigenous community, including for U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone’s 2002 reelection campaign. After serving one term on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board, she was a member of Wellstone Action, a training organization for progressive candidates. In 2015, Flanagan was elected to the state house to fill a vacancy and represented a section of Minneapolis’s western, inner-ring suburbs. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she spoke on Native American representation in politics.

Flanagan was elected lieutenant governor in 2018 and reelected in 2022, both times as Tim Walz’s running mate. She has advocated for working-class families in addition to indigenous communities.

The daughter of American Indian land rights and sovereignty activist Marvin Manypenny, Flanagan was raised by a single mother, a phlebotomist, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. She is a citizen of the White Earth Nation. Flanagan received a bachelor’s degree in child psychology and American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota in 2002.

>> Wikipedia