How Minnesota's Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan could make history if Tim Walz becomes Vice President

If Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz becomes vice president in January, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan will finish his term. 

She would be the first female governor in Minnesota's history. 

And she would be the first female Native American governor in U.S. history, as two men of Native American ancestry previously served as governors of Oklahoma. 

Flanagan's lieutenant governor gig would be filled by the state Senate president. 

Currently that spot is occupied by state Sen. Bobby Joe Champion. If Champion became Minnesota's lieutenant governor he would be the first black person in the job.

Minnesota's Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (left) would be the first female governor of the state of Minnesota and the first Native American female governor nationally should Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (right) become VP next year

Peggy Flanagan is a citizen of the White Earth Nation and is the daughter of the late Native American activist Marvin Manypenny, though was raised by her mother 

Flanagan, 44, was raised by her mother but is the daughter of prominent Native American activist Marvin Manypenny. 

She is a citizen of the White Earth Nation. 

'My dad oftentimes would say, "My girl, I want to burn down the system, and you want to get into the system and change it from the inside out,"' Flanagan said to MPRNews after her father passed away in 2020. 'That's a pretty good summary of how my dad operated and how I operate.' 

'I'm just so proud to be his daughter,' she added. 'When he passed, there was, frankly, a lot of wisdom that went with him. And we will miss him terribly.'

Flanagan first got the politics bug while working on Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone's 2002 reelection campaign while studying at the University of Minnesota. 

Wellstone tragically died in a plane accident that year. 

Flanagan went on to become a community organizer. 

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan speaks at the Indigenous House At Sundance Film Festival in January 2023

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (right) gets a tour of Prince's estate Paisley Park, after Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill that renamed a seven mile stretch of Highway 5 as Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway in 2023 

She worked for Wellstone Action, named after the late DFL senator, where she spent eight years teaching candidates how to run successful political campaigns, according to MinnPost. 

She ran for Minneapolis School Board in 2004, her first successful race. 

When a state House seat opened up in Flanagan's St. Louis Park district in 2015 she ran unopposed. 

In 2017, Walz picked the lawmaker to serve as his running mate ahead of the 2018 gubernatorial race. 

At the time, Walz, a U.S. House member whose district tilted slightly Republican, needed the liberal Flanagan to help balance out his ticket politically.