Democrat · Minnesota Senate · 2026
Peggy Flanagan
Flanagan grew up in St. Louis Park, raised by a single mother who relied on public assistance.
Biography
Peggy Flanagan grew up with a single mother in a household that relied on housing assistance, food benefits and Medicaid.1 She is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and lives in St. Louis Park with her husband, Tom, daughter, Siobhan, and dog, Reuben.2
She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2002 with a degree in child psychology and a minor in American Indian studies.2 Her work included training political organizers at Wellstone Action, where Governor Tim Walz was among her students.2 As executive director of Children's Defense Fund Minnesota, she cochaired the campaign supporting the state's 2014 minimum wage increase.3
Flanagan served on the Minneapolis school board and in the Minnesota House before becoming lieutenant governor in 2019.4 She chairs the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness and helped advance creation of the state's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office.2 The Walz and Flanagan administration also backed the free school breakfast and lunch program signed into law in 2023.5
Her Senate proposals include Medicare for All, universal childcare, a higher federal minimum wage and restrictions on corporate purchases of homes.1 She also supports farmers' ability to repair their own equipment and stronger limits on insurance prior authorization.1 She faces Republican Michele Tafoya on November 3 for the seat opening with Democratic Senator Tina Smith's retirement.1