Tim Walz’s Vice Presidential Win Would Make History in an Unexpected Way

If Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is voted the next vice president of the United States, it will trigger a milestone moment for representation back in his home state.

On Tuesday, Aug. 6, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris chose the Minnesota governor to be her running mate in the 2024 presidential election.  If Harris wins in November, Walz would resign from his current role before getting sworn in as vice president and, according to the Minnesota Constitution, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan would take his place at the helm of the North Star State.

Flanagan, who assumed the office of lieutenant governor alongside Walz in 2019, would then become Minnesota’s first female governor — and the first Native woman to govern a U.S. state.

At 44 years old, Flanagan has already made history. Upon getting elected to her current title, she became the “country’s highest ranking Native woman elected to executive office,” according to her government page.

She is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and opened up to Teen Vogue in 2018 about her history-making election, saying, “I have a responsibility, especially because of those who came before me and cleared a path, to do good for my people.”

At the time, she also spoke optimistically about the future of Indigenous communities in Minnesota and said, “I think we are living in a really, really exciting time.”

During Flanagan’s time in office, she has focused on children, working families, people of color and other underrepresented communities. Her bio states that she established the country’s first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, increased the Minnesota Family Investment Program payments and secured investments in affordable housing and child care.

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Flanagan shared her support for Walz throughout the vice presidential nomination process in recent weeks, writing on Instagram in late July that he’s “a good man and I’m grateful to be his friend.”

After Flanagan was confirmed as Harris’ VP pick, she shared a photo of herself and him on Instagram with the caption, “I’ve been friends with Tim Walz for almost 20 years. And for more than five years, he’s been my partner in justice at the Minnesota Capitol. He has the grit and the grace to keep our country moving forward alongside Kamala Harris.”