ST. PAUL, Minn. – The strong personal and political relationship between Governor Tim Walz and his chosen lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan has gone all asunder. Apparently they aren’t even speaking. From what political observers have pieced together, Flanagan put the cart ahead of the horse and assumed that that Kamala Harris ticket would win the presidency in November and carry Walz into the vice presidency as her running mate. As Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, Flanagan would have ascended to the governorship until an election could be held. Things didn’t work out way. The Harris-Walz ticket lost. When Walz returned from campaigning, sources said, he learned that Flanagan was far along in building an organization to run for governor herself and had even tapped into Walz campaign accounts.
Capitol grapevine abuzz about rift
Exactly when Walz learned what was going on hasn’t been established. The buzz around the Capitol is that it was almost as soon as Walz was back in town. In the first Walz homecoming event, three days after returning, at Eagan High School, Flanagan was nowhere to be seen. Typically she would introduce Walz at such occasions. Instead First Lady Gwen Walz did the honors. In attendance were Walz staff, various state commissioners and invited guests. Why not Flanagan? Sources whispered that she wasn’t invited. How crusty has the relationship become? Walz doesn’t mention her publicly by name anymore. Not at all. Too: Flanagan was not invited to a pre-Thanksgiving turkey event at the Capitol. Nor was she at a 90-minute media reception with cookies and punch at the governor’s mansion. Flanagan and her family have attended both events for years.
The Walz-Flanagan partnership
Neither Walz nor Flanagan, the Dynamic Duo of State politics for six years, have been together in public now for seven weeks. There were earlier hints, emerging clearly only in retrospect, that things were on a collision course. When Flanagan was asked in August if she would consider running for governor, she said: “If the people of Minnesota want me to continue to serve, I am absolutely open to that” It was about then, sources believed, that Flanagan had tapped Walz’s gubernatorial campaign funds without authorization. When Walz was asked recently if he would seek a third term in 2026, he said he hadn’t decided. Pressed further if he might step aside for another Democrat to run, he in effect said. no. His words: “That what’s what primaries are for.” Were you listening, Peggy Flanagan?
Earlier: Walz contemplating third term? “Ask me later”
Walz and Flanagan. Unlikely that this 2022 campaign image will appear ever again.
Flanagan profile
Her name in the Ojjbwe language is Waudamukwe. As lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan is the first woman of color elected to statewide office in Minnesota. She is the highest-ranking Native American woman in elected office in the nation Flanagan, wh is 45, holds a degree in child psychology and American Indian studies from the University of Minnesota. In college Flanagan got her feet wet in politics on a campaign for U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, Later she was an organizer for the urban Native American community in Minneapolis. In 2004 she was elected to the Minneapolis School Board. In 2008 she ran for the Legislature but dropped out to help her sick mother. Flanagan was elected to the Minnesota House without any competition in 2015. Walz chose her as his lieutenant governor running mate for 2018. She addressed the 2o24 Democratic national convention in Chicago with enthusiasm for Walz for vice president. She was one of four chairs of the national convention.