As Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) prepares to hit the campaign trail with Vice President Kamala Harris, he will have to navigate the challenges of balancing his duties as governor with his new role as vice presidential candidate. If elected, Walz would not immediately vacate his office, following in the footsteps of Harris, who split her time between the Senate and the campaign trail in 2020.
If Walz is elected vice president, he would be required to resign from his current term as governor, which began on January 2, 2023, and is set to end on January 4, 2027. According to the Minnesota Constitution, a vacancy in the governorship would trigger a succession process, elevating Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan to the governorship and state Senate President Bobby Joe Champion to the lieutenant governorship.
Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, has served as lieutenant governor since January 2019 and is touted as the highest-ranking Native American woman in elected executive office in the country. If she were to become governor, she would make history as the first Native American woman to hold the office in Minnesota and the United States.
Flanagan’s background in politics is rooted in her service on the Minneapolis Board of Education from 2005 to 2009, followed by her election to the state House of Representatives, where she served from 2015 until taking office as lieutenant governor in 2019.
Walz’s selection as Harris’s running mate marks a significant milestone for Minnesota, as he becomes the first politician from the state to appear on a major-party ticket since former Vice President Walter Mondale ran as the Democratic Party’s nominee in 1984. With the Republican and Democratic parties both selecting vice presidential candidates from the Midwest, the stage is set for a contentious election season.
