Peggy Flanagan
Updated: Wikipedia source
Margaret Flanagan (Ojibwe: Gizhiiwewidamookwe; 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 St. 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 at the time of her election, the highest-ranking Native American woman to hold elected office in the country. 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.