Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to tap Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate could lead to a barrier-shattering political moment for Indian Country.
Walz doesn’t have to resign to run for vice president on the Democratic Party ticket, but the second-term governor would need to step down if elected in November.
According to the line of succession in Minnesota, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, would then become the nation’s first Native American governor.
Flanagan recently campaigned for Harris in Arizona in late July and attended the Native Power Building Summit in Scottsdale. The daylong gathering was organized by Advance Political Native Leadership, a nonprofit she co-founded.
It helps Indigenous candidates seeking public office.
“The job of Advance is to create more spaces like this,” said Flanagan, “where we have to break fewer ceilings, and we won’t have as many cuts and scars and broken bones, because we need to just walk into the room where we belong every damn time.”
Flanagan would also become Minnesota’s first female governor.
“The world will crack wide open for all of us,” Flanagan added, “It is not about one election or the next election or this cycle or the other. It is about what we are dreaming for, and that vision for our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren and the people that we will never, ever meet.”
