Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota, an organizer and former school board member running on a progressive, anti-establishment platform, is one of two leading candidates in her state’s Democratic primary race for Senate on Tuesday.
Here are five things to know about Ms. Flanagan, 46, who lives in St. Louis Park, outside Minneapolis.
1. She is endorsed by left-wing leaders. Ms. Flanagan has called for universal health care and an end to unconditional U.S. military aid for Israel, which she has accused of carrying out a genocide in Gaza. She is supported by Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont progressive, and Representative Ilhan Omar, a progressive from Minneapolis. She is also backed by the retiring Tina Smith, the Democrat who is vacating the Senate seat that Ms. Flanagan is seeking. Ms. Flanagan said in an interview that she considered herself “an organizer all the time,” adding, “Regardless of what my occupation might be, my vocation is always the same.”
2. She was a mentor to Tim Walz. Ms. Flanagan may serve under Mr. Walz, Minnesota’s governor. But she spent years training liberals considering runs for office in the early 2000s, when she was serving on the Minneapolis school board, and Mr. Walz was among those who came under her tutelage. In 2006, she volunteered on his House campaign. Later he picked Ms. Flanagan, then a state lawmaker, as his running mate in his 2018 campaign for governor. When he returned to Minnesota after joining Vice President Kamala Harris’s ticket in 2024, they had disagreements over shared campaign finances. The governor has stayed neutral in the Senate race, but his wife, Gwen Walz, endorsed Ms. Flanagan’s moderate rival, Representative Angie Craig. “Angie and Gwen have been friends for a really long time,” Ms. Flanagan said in the interview. “ I totally get it. She gave me a heads up.”
3. Her role in the state government has been a target. Ms. Flanagan has faced scrutiny over a major scandal in the state’s safety-net programs. Members of both parties have faulted Mr. Walz and his administration for failing to prevent fraudsters from stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from programs meant to feed low-income children, treat minors with autism and support people at risk of homelessness. Ms. Flanagan has said that Mr. Walz took decisive action to respond to the scandal but that Minnesota residents have a right to be angry.
4. She could become the first Native American woman in the Senate. Ms. Flanagan is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and has worked to improve relations between the Minnesota government and leaders of the state’s 11 Native nations. She is the highest-ranking Native woman in statewide executive office, according to Advance Native Political Leadership, a group that tracks Indigenous elected officials. Her father was an American Indian land rights activist; her mother, who primarily raised her, was active in the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, as the state’s Democrats are called.
5. She has called for new Democratic leadership in the Senate. Ms. Flanagan has stood out from Ms. Craig by saying she would not support Senator Chuck Schumer of New York staying on as Democratic leader after the midterms. “People want big, bold change,” Ms. Flanagan said in an interview. “They are sick of nibbling around the edges.”
Ernesto Londoño contributed reporting.
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