Out to Lunch: Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan sees reflection, even on the hard moments, as a gift

On Minnesota Now, we get to hear from so many different people in Minnesota over the phone and in the studio. But we don’t often meet them in the community, where news — and life — happens. In a new series we are calling Out to Lunch, we sit down for a meal with people from Minnesota news and culture to get to know them better.

Our lunch guest: Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan

The restaurant: Owamni in Minneapolis

The following has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above for the full conversation.

This is a restaurant, Owamni, that is very meaningful to you. Will you tell us about why?

First of all, Owamni is located on the Mississippi River and Owámniyomni is the Dakota place name for this really sacred site. So the fact that this restaurant is located here, that Sean Sherman had the foresight to pick this area, and the partnership with the park board, I think, is so powerful.

But the real power of this space is to just have Indigenous foods, without any flour, sugar, dairy — frankly, probably the way that I should always be eating as a Ojibwe woman — and to also see just how it has taken off; the response from the community, but nationally and globally, to the need to have spaces for Indigenous food and cuisine. And it’s delicious.

I’m curious to know, how does it feel to be sharing a lot about yourself and your background and representing your culture?

I don’t know how else to do this job. For so long, we just didn’t see people from different backgrounds who were serving in elected office. When I was four years old and Geraldine Ferraro was running with Walter Mondale, that was a big deal, right? And now we’re in this moment where we have Indigenous representation in both bodies in the House and Senate here in Minnesota. Things are changing. I think we need people to be able to see themselves reflected in those spaces.

I also think it’s important to be your authentic self. Like, I’m a mom and I love 90’s hip-hop and R&B and the New Kids on the Block and I will share that with folks too. Frankly, people are really craving authenticity and we should just be ourselves when we’re in these roles.

Sometimes that even means sharing painful things or things that are hard to talk about.

People with lived experience should feel like they can speak up. As a survivor of domestic violence and a child witness, I’ve made myself small many times to just try to stay safe. That doesn’t serve me anymore and it certainly doesn’t serve anybody else.

In a role like this one, that connection through storytelling and saying, “I have empathy because I’ve been through something similar,” that’s really powerful. I think it’s super powerful right now in this moment we find ourselves in where people are really divided.

In these divided times, things can be very vitriolic. There have been moments of bipartisanship as well. What do you think it’s going to take to really make a dent in the polarization we have as a society?

It’s actually something that I have been thinking a lot about. I don’t completely understand politics right now. I was raised on the Wellstone for Senate campaign where you saw folks from all different walks of life coming together to work on something and towards something and with each other. And I truly believe that that is who we are, at least as Minnesotans.

I think in some ways, it will take folks rejecting the incredibly racist, harmful, divisive, dehumanizing rhetoric that we hear from like the highest places in the land. But I also think it is again coming back to your own community and “what is the next good thing that I can do.”

I go to church every Sunday, and if we can’t get there on Sunday, we go on Saturday, which may surprise some people. But our parish community is really, really important to me. And that is one of the places where I don’t know the political affiliations of other people who are sitting around me, who share a lot of the same values. But I know that we all step up, and we try to make sure that kids have full backpacks and that people are fed, and that right now we are developing a plan for our community members who are undocumented.

I remember when we passed the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Task Force bill. That happened because [former Minnesota Republican Sen.] Paul Gazelka and our office worked together. And then we had this beautiful ceremony where folks from both sides of the aisle, community, law enforcement, are all together saying this is a priority. And now we have a full-fledged office for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives.

How are you feeling coming out of five years after the pandemic?

We experienced a tremendous amount of loss in a very short period of time. My dad walked on in January of 2020 and then shortly thereafter, my brother passed away. He was the second person to die of COVID-19 in the state of Tennessee. My auntie, both of [my husband’s] parents, my mom, just days after the 2022 election. So really this last chunk of time has really been marked by grief.

But I’m also really proud. I think it made my parents pretty proud. My dad was always like, “my girl, I want to burn down the system and you want to change it from the inside out, and we need both.” And with my mom, when you’re in the middle of the minimum wage fight a decade ago, and things looked really tough, and she said, “I wish we had someone like you advocating for our family.”

I have those gifts and that wisdom that I now try to impart on my child and when things seem difficult or as we are going into a very uncertain time, knowing my parents have been through more difficult things; our people have been through more difficult things and we are resilient and have come out on the other side. Not everybody can reflect like that and it feels like a real gift.

As we have our ‘Last Bite’, as we’re calling it, we ask people, what are the ingredients for something that stood out in the conversation. So for our Last Bite, what are the ingredients to living an authentic life?

I think the ingredients to living an authentic life are surrounding yourself with people who make you want to be the best version of yourself; surrounding yourself with people who make you feel safe and loved; that love you in a way that allows you to fight for yourself and fight for other people.

And for me, it means if I’ve got my Air Pods on and I’m walking down the street and I am so moved, that I can do a little dance walk and a little spin. It means playing and being silly and sharing my love of the Muppets with my child and boy bands.

And being really clear, I would just say this, especially in this place, that my Ojibwe name is Gizhiiwewidamookwe, which means speaks in a loud and clear voice woman. There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with my name. And living an authentic life is knowing who you are, where you come from, and who you are responsible to and for.

If you or someone you know needs to talk to an advocate, call Violence Free Minnesota’s confidential domestic violence hotline Minnesota DayOne at: 866-223-1111.