Who is Peggy Flanagan? The Lt. Gov. who could substitute Tim Walz as Governor of Minnesota

Now that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been selected as Kamala Harris’s running mate, questions are circulating about who could replace him should the Democratic ticket win in November.

One of the clearest options is Peggy Flanagan, the state’s lieutenant governor. Flanagan was elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2022 with Walz leading the ticket in both of those elections.

Before her entrance into the state’s executive branch, she served as a representative in the Minnesota House. She is a member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, a statewide affiliate of the Democratic party. Flanagan is Native American. As a citizen of the White Earth Nation, she organized around issues related to land rights and indigenous sovereignty. At the University of Minnesota, she obtained degrees in American Indian Studies and child psychology. X users have been quick to point out that, if she run’s and is elected, she would be the first indigenous governor in US history.

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As for how Flanagan reacted to the news that Governor Walz could be leaving Minnesota, her words could not have been kinder. Writing on social media that in the twenty years they have been working in politics together Walz has “been [her] partner in justice at the Minnesota Capitol.”

She endorsed Kamala Harris very quickly after she announced her intention to seek the party’s nomination and posted her convention ballot with the box ticked for Harris on social media.

Flanagan spoke at the 2016 DNC convention, and could be selected to speak this year as a voice that can attest to the political bonafide of Walz after serving with him for over two decades.