If Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz make history in November, so too will Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
Flanagan was elected as the state’s 50th lieutenant governor in 2018. A member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, she is currently the country’s highest ranked Native woman voted into executive office.
Minnesota statute states that if there’s a vacancy in the office of governor for whatever reason, “the lieutenant governor shall become governor.”
Walz is currently still the governor of Minnesota, as under state law Walz can maintain his position while running for vice president. But if he is elected vice president under Harris in November, he will resign from the governor’s office.
In that scenario, Flanagan would ascend to the governorship. She would make history as the first woman to become governor of Minnesota and the first Native American woman to serve as governor of a state in US history.
