Peggy Flanagan

Biography

Peggy Flanagan is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. She earned her B.A. from the University of Minnesota. She served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. She was elected Lieutenant Governor alongside Gov. Tim Walz in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. She received the official DFL party endorsement by acclamation on May 30, 2026.

Professional background

Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota (2019–present); Minnesota state legislator (2015–2019)

Public service

Minnesota House of Representatives (2015–2019); Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota (2019–present)

In this race

• Angie Craig (Democratic)

Related research

• The True Cost of Peggy Flanagan’s Medicare for All Plan
• America Is $40 Trillion In Debt. Senate Democrats Want To Make The Problem Even Bigger

Issue positions

Healthcare (Policy)

Flanagan calls healthcare a “human right” and supports Medicare for All. Until a single-payer bill can pass, she proposes broader Medicare and Medicaid benefits for dental, vision, and hearing care; negotiation of all prescription-drug prices; stronger mental-health parity; an end to insurer prior authorization; and expanded maternal care, with preference for native and black mothers. CBO projects a low-premium plan could induce some private insurers to leave and some employers to stop offering coverage. If Washington sets rates for health care near Medicare, clinics, doctor offices, and rural health care facilities would close. CRFB estimated that financing a roughly $30 trillion single-payer plan could require payroll taxes, income surtaxes, or mandatory premiums at levels that would hit middle-class households. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Flanagan offers broad coverage and stronger patient protections, but has not supplied a detailed financing plan or explained how Medicare for All would preserve rural capacity while controlling costs."

Taxes (Policy)

Flanagan frames taxes around affordability but has not published a complete rate schedule. She supports expanding the federal Child Tax Credit and raising Social Security contributions from higher earners by raising the wage cap and contribution base. Removing the Social Security payroll tax cap would expose all wage income above $184,500 (the 2026 cap) to the 12.4% OASDI payroll tax, split between employer and employee and would mean a significant tax increase for higher-earning professionals and small business owners. However, the policy could represent both a significant tax increase and benefit windfall for higher-earning professionals and small business owners since Social Security benefits are calculated as a percentage of lifetime contributions. These policies would increase after-tax income for many families and seniors, but refundable credits are federal or state spending through the tax code and require revenue elsewhere. Raising or eliminating the Social Security taxable-wage cap would improve program solvency and make financing more progressive, though it would raise labor costs for higher-paid employees and their employers. Flanagan is clearer about beneficiaries than about total cost, phaseouts or offsets. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Flanagan’s affordability pitch relies more on refundable benefits and higher collections from upper earners, but she has not released a full tax plan and budget impact."

Environment & Energy (Policy)

Flanagan supports clean-energy deployment, union jobs, industrial decarbonization, biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel. Her administration enacted Minnesota’s requirement that utilities deliver 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040, alongside electric-vehicle incentives, a PFAS ban and faster clean-energy permitting. The standard allows nuclear power and regulatory “off ramps,” making it less rigid than a renewables-only mandate. CBO’s January 2025 baseline placed the 2026–2035 deficit cost of federal wind and solar investment and production credits at about $300 billion. CBO also found the credits would stimulate investment while warning that wage, domestic-content, and location conditions can steer capital toward higher-cost projects. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Flanagan supports clean energy efforts that cost taxpayers billions. Her approach could bring jobs and cleaner power, but its credibility depends on realistic storage, transmission, nuclear and affordability plans—not targets alone."

Immigration (Policy)

Flanagan says the country needs a secure, orderly border, more immigration judges, updated screening technology, lawful asylum and a pathway to legal status for long-settled undocumented residents. She also says ICE has “completely lost the trust of the American people,” adding “We need to overhaul this agency and start over.” Abolishing ICE without a detailed transfer of authorities, personnel, databases, detention capacity, and congressional oversight invites a costly reorganization and potential enforcement gaps and would continue to allow illegal immigrants to benefit from American taxpayer dollars. Under Biden, nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants attempted to cross the border in a single month. CBO estimates the immigration surge under Biden’s watch imposed a direct $9.2 billion net cost on state and local governments in 2023, chiefly for schools, shelter, and border security. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Flanagan supports abolishing ICE and allowing illegal immigrants to remain in America on the taxpayer’s dime."

Public Safety (Policy)

Flanagan’s senate platform calls for new gun control restrictions, limits on the Second Amendment, and new requirements for law-abiding gun owners. Flanagan supports funding local police departments but has been fiercely opposed to ICE operations in Minnesota. Flanagan calls to ban assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and ghost guns. A RAND study found moderate evidence that background checks reduce firearm suicides and limited-to-moderate evidence on some homicide outcomes. It found the evidence on assault-weapon bans’ effect on homicide inconclusive in the reviewed literature, while evidence for some child-access prevention laws was stronger for reducing youth firearm injuries and suicides. Heritage argues that semi-automatic rifles are rarely used in ordinary gun crime and that “assault weapon” definitions often turn on cosmetic features. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Her platform is a prevention-plus-enforcement model, with its strongest case in domestic violence, training and re-entry; its most divisive feature is nationwide gun prohibition. Flanagan says she would fund police and prevention programs, but her most consequential national public-safety proposal is a broad gun-ban agenda that would restrict lawful owners and cut directly against the Second Amendment."

Economy & Labor (Policy)

Flanagan supports a federal minimum wage of at least $17 indexed to inflation, the PRO Act, national paid family and medical leave, universal childcare, apprenticeships and reliable infrastructure funding. The PRO Act would ban right to work laws across the nation, harming workers and costing businesses $47 billion each year. The legislation would be funded by a $2 trillion tax hike. National paid leave could reduce turnover and let small employers offer a benefit common at large firms, but payroll premiums ultimately fall on employers, workers or both. A $17 floor would raise wages for many low-paid workers, however, CBO’s analysis of a similar proposal finds higher earnings and lower poverty for many families, alongside some employment loss and price increases. Indexing prevents erosion but can lock in increases during weak local conditions. As lieutenant governor, Flanagan oversaw the largest fraud scheme in America as 47 individuals got away with a $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. The scheme exploited a federally-funded child nutrition program enacted in the wake of COVID-19. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Flanagan’s labor agenda promises to materially strengthen worker bargaining power and benefits, but has great potential to weaken the economy. Her record as lieutenant governor is sketchy, as $250 million in fraud happened under her watch."

Democracy & Campaign Finance (Policy)

Flanagan refuses corporate PAC contributions and supports overturning Citizens United, disclosure of political donors, bans on federal officeholders trading stocks and later lobbying, Supreme Court reform, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Minnesota under Walz and Flanagan restored voting rights to more than 55,000 people after incarceration, adopted automatic voter registration, permanent absentee status and preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds, and enacted a state Voting Rights Act. Disclosure and stock-trading rules could reduce conflicts of interest. But enacting a corporate-PAC ban would not by itself stop super PACs, nonprofit spending, wealthy individual donors or union political funds as candidates who reject one source can still benefit from independent expenditures they do not control. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Her ethics proposals address genuine conflicts, but the campaign-finance pledge is narrower than the “dark money” problem she describes."

Foreign Policy (Policy)

Flanagan has opposed the war in the middle east, saying “Americans have made it clear that we do not want to be dragged into another endless war in the Middle East.” She supports “a lasting ceasefire and two-state solution which allows for a secure Israel and Palestinian self-determination.” Her campaign says she supports halting weapon sales to Israel, saying the U.S. and her allies must “surge aid to Gaza and help rebuild the area.” She also supports rebuilding ties with NATO allies and continued aid to Ukraine. On trade, she favors removing broad tariffs that hurt Minnesota agriculture while retaining targeted protection for industries such as iron mining and responding to Chinese intellectual-property theft and unfair trade. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Flanagan’s foreign policy is broadly progressive-internationalist and pro-alliance. It is more developed on Ukraine, Gaza and tariffs than on China deterrence, defense spending, Iran or other global threats."

Sources (Reference)

◆ Healthcare
• Peggy Flanagan Campaign — Policy Priorities
• Congressional Budget Office — Economic Effects of Five Illustrative Single-Payer Health-Care Systems
• Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget — Choices for Financing Medicare for All

◆ Taxes
• Social Security Administration — Contribution and Benefit Base

◆ Environment & Energy
• Congressional Budget Office — January 2025 Budget and Economic Outlook

◆ Immigration
• Peggy Flanagan — Public Statement on ICE and Immigration Reform
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection — U.S. Border Patrol Records Zero Releases for Eighth Consecutive Month
• Congressional Budget Office — Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy

◆ Public Safety
• Peggy Flanagan — Public Statement on ICE and Public Safety
• RAND — The Science of Gun Policy
• Heritage Foundation — Protecting America from Assault Weapons

◆ Economy & Labor
• Americans for Tax Reform — Analysis of the PRO Act
• House Committee on Education and the Workforce — PRO Act One-Pager
• U.S. Department of Justice — Feeding Our Future Fraud Charges

◆ Democracy & Campaign Finance
• No source was included in the submitted material for this section.

◆ Foreign Policy
• Peggy Flanagan — Public Statement on Middle East Policy
• Peggy Flanagan Campaign — Policy Priorities