Peggy Flanagan Becomes First Native American Woman Elected to U.S. Senate

Peggy Flanagan has become the first Native American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, MPR News reported.

The Associated Press called Minnesota’s Senate race for Flanagan over Republican Michele Tafoya at 11:07 p.m. CST on Nov. 3.

Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Nation and Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, will succeed Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, who did not seek reelection.

She delivered her victory speech that night at the InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront hotel in St. Paul.

“The name you voted for on the ballot is Peggy Flanagan, but my Ojibwe name is Speaks in a Loud and Clear Voice Woman,” she said.

“I am a proud daughter of the White Earth Nation,” she said during the same speech.

“We were overlooked, but we will not be stopped,” she said.

Her Senate campaign focused on household costs, health care and changes to political financing. In her published priorities, Flanagan supported Medicare for All, broader Medicare and Medicaid coverage for dental, vision and hearing care, and greater access to mental health services.

She also proposed restrictions on corporate money in elections, disclosure of donors and a ban on stock trading by elected federal officials. Her platform also supported barring elected and appointed officials from moving into lobbying.

Flanagan’s campaign connected those priorities with her upbringing in St. Louis Park. She described relying on housing assistance, food assistance and Medicaid as a child, and presented that experience as a reason for protecting public programs.

Her public-service background includes the Minneapolis Board of Education, where she served from 2005 to 2009, and the Minnesota House of Representatives, to which she was elected in 2015. She also worked as a trainer at Wellstone Action and as executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund–Minnesota.