11 minute read
Taking Her Seat at the Table
Taking Her Seat at the Table
BY LAUREN FILIPPINI (ALPHA CHI, BUTLER UNIVERSITY), MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Peggy Flanagan (Alpha Lambda, University of Minnesota) knows representation matters. As lieutenant governor of Minnesota, she is the nation’s highest-ranking Native woman elected to executive office.
But her journey to this position wasn’t linear, and she was often quick to suggest others for office before herself. Over time, Peggy has learned that she deserves to sit at decision-making tables – and so do others whose voices are needed.
“I think being the first, there are a lot of expectations. There is a lot of weight that you are carrying. There’s a demand for excellence,” Peggy says. “And I think that just comes back to being surrounded and raised by strong women. Empowering women to lead, especially in government and policy spaces, has always been my passion.”
JOURNEY TO THE STATEHOUSE
“As a little girl, I didn’t dream of becoming the lieutenant governor,” Peggy says. “But now I really can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Peggy grew up in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota. Her family used public programs like SNAP and a Section 8 housing voucher, which she says helped them create a “foundation of stability and opportunity.” She adds, “So much of my job is really about paying that back and paying that forward.”
Peggy attended the University of Minnesota for child psychology and American Indian studies. There, she joined Alpha Chi Omega through informal recruitment; she says, “To be really candid, I would have never thought about rushing any other house,” pointing to the diversity of membership as a key factor for joining. After college, she returned to her community and began working with the Division of Indian Work. Through supporting a program to bridge the gap between home and school for Native children and their families, she realized her local school board needed representation from the Native American community.
“I spent several months trying to convince folks that they should run for the school board, and it turned out it was me,” she recalls.
Peggy is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. She wasn’t sure that she would win the school board election, but she looked at her campaign as a chance to bring issues that affect Native communities like hers into the conversation and to mobilize community members to vote. In 2004, she won.
Peggy continued her professional career at Wellstone Action, helping develop community activists and political leaders – including her future gubernatorial running mate, Tim Walz! She also helped found the Native American Leadership Program, which has supported many Indigenous people in serving on tribal councils and in elected office.
Still, Peggy didn’t see herself in statewide office yet. Instead, she became the executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund of Minnesota. One of the organization’s major campaigns was to raise the minimum wage in the state; with that and other policy change campaigns, Peggy interacted with state representatives – and one suggested to her that she might run for his seat one day.
One day came sooner than she thought when that representative moved out of state and his seat opened for a special election. After talking with friends and family, Peggy decided to run. Although she was unopposed, she says, “It was important to me that we ran like we were 10 points behind – knocking on lots of doors, having conversations in the community that raised me – so people would know that I took the job seriously.”
Peggy won the election in 2015 and was reelected in 2016. And in 2017, Tim Walz walked into her office to talk about his campaign for governor. Peggy was prepared to give him a list of possible running mates, but it turned out he had only one person in mind, and it was the last person Peggy expected – herself!
LIFE AS LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
Tim Walz and Peggy Flanagan were elected in 2018 as governor and lieutenant governor, respectively (candidates are chosen jointly by a single vote applying to both offices in Minnesota), and reelected in 2022. Fun fact: For several hours in 2019, Peggy served as acting governor when Tim Walz was undergoing a medical procedure – making her the first woman to ever lead the state!
Before even agreeing to be the running mate, Peggy wanted to make sure that her role as lieutenant governor would be more than ceremonial. She remembers having conversations with Tim Walz to plan that her role would be “serving [him], the people of Minnesota and the issues I care about regarding children and families.” And throughout her terms, Peggy has done just that.
Among her many accomplishments, Peggy is proud that the state passed paid family and medical leave, a policy campaign that she worked on more than a decade before. She has championed investments in childcare and early childhood education and support for renters and first-time homebuyers. And in continuing her passion for Alpha Chi Omega’s philanthropy, Peggy also advocates for policies for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
The daily schedule of a lieutenant governor is never the same, though Peggy points out that each day starts with “trying to get myself and my child out the door … fueled by coffee.” As she works to advance policies, implement laws, adhere to the budget and partner with the legislature, she is constantly making connections with both lawmakers and the public. She also represents the governor’s office at press conferences, something she didn’t realize would be such a large part of her job before she started.
“We have to let people know about the work that we’re doing as we’re passing legislation and it’s coming into effect. We have to let people know what their rights are,” she says. “You represent the entire state, and so as much as I can get outside of the capital and engage with people directly, that feels like it’s my superpower and what then allows me to come back here and do this good work and know there are real people behind these policies that we’re moving.”
Her press conferences and appearances take her all over Minnesota, from water treatment plants to parks to the state fair – but her favorite stops are at schools. “It’s oftentimes difficult for my staff to get me to move along because I just want to visit with the kids!” she says.
She is also keeping the needs of her Native American community at the forefront of her work. In 2020, the Minnesota Office of Justice Programs created the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Task Force, to advise the commissioner of public safety and create recommendations for the legislature to end violence against Indigenous women and girls in Minnesota. And in support of that cause, the country’s first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office was created.
“We’ve made a real priority in our office, the governor and I, to ensure that we are really strengthening tribalstate relations,” Peggy says. “Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated the fact that the governor and lieutenant governor have visited every tribe, every reservation, all 11, during our time in office. That’s never happened before.”
She adds, “I think part of being in this role is the state government beginning to live up to their commitment, frankly, that they should have to the 11 Native nations that share their geography with the state of Minnesota.”
EMBRACING HER IDENTITIES
The policies that Peggy has championed are making a difference for Minnesotans – but her very presence in the office of lieutenant governor is also important.
“Being in this role, I think it means that when we see Native people, Native women, women of color in these executive roles, like lieutenant governor, it becomes easier for people to also think about us in roles as governor or United States senator, to having roles where we are running organizations and companies and are chairs of boards,” she says. “It’s just sort of this throughline.”
In 2020, Peggy was awarded the Native American Leadership Award from the National Congress of American Indians for her work building awareness of issues that affect Native populations and making an impact on their lives. She was also elected in late 2023 as the chair of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, the first Native American woman to lead a party committee.
“I think we’re just in this really important moment where things are still tricky and messy and where, as a country, we feel very divided, but I think that Native women, and women in general, have oftentimes been healers and folks who can find common ground and bring people together,” she explains. “I think that’s what we’re called to do in this moment.”
An effort Peggy is proud to support is the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota, which is working to eliminate barriers and disparities for young women in the state. Peggy is one of the coaches of the initiative and helps with the Young Women’s Cabinet. “Women’s voices are needed now more than ever before,” Peggy says.
The Alpha Lambda chapter helped teach her this. Peggy recalls having conversations with her sisters about important issues in a supportive environment. She says her collegiate membership experience gave her valuable experience with how to show up in professional spaces, from learning about etiquette to finding her place. She says, “We need to have those skills, we need to know some of this language as we are navigating through a lot of these places and spaces that weren’t created by and for women. I think that’s one of the powerful tools that Alpha Chi Omega really gave to me.”
Whether an Alpha Chi Omega wants to take on public office, lead a company or chair a board, Peggy’s advice to her sisters is simple: “Don’t make yourself small.” It’s a lesson Peggy has been learning over her own lifetime; she says she used to allow herself to fade to the background or use humor as a defense. But even in little ways, she’s working to take up space.
“It’s kind of a joke because when I sit down at the table, I’ll put my briefing binder down, my coffee, my water, my two phones, my pen and just spread out,” she says. “And I think, to be honest, it’s really just kind of a subconscious way of saying, ‘I am here. I deserve to be here. I deserve to represent the voices of the people who cannot be here.’”
When Alpha Chi Omegas are at the table, she reminds them to speak up, to amplify the voices of others and to not let women’s opinions be diminished. “There are already people who are going to try to make you feel small,” Peggy says. “You don’t have to do that to yourself.”
Not only are other women watching, girls are, too. Peggy would bring her daughter with her to community meetings and work, wearing her or spreading out a blanket so she could play. She says it’s common for Native women to bring their kids everywhere they go, and it sends a powerful message. “It changes spaces for the better,” she says.
Peggy is adamant that women belong in all spaces, particularly in government, and she knows the Alpha Chi experience can set sisters up for success. “Coming from an organization that is really grounded in woman’s leadership, relationships, building connections and cheering each other on, you already have a strong foundation from which to build,” she says.
Peggy is the first to admit that she needed encouragement from others to run for office – and she’s not going to let her Alpha Chi Omega sisters miss their opportunity: “You know, women have to be asked an average of nine times to run for office before they say ‘yes,’ so I want them to consider this their first ask.”
