Latest / It's Open with Ilana Glazer / Minnesota Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan

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Minnesota Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan · It's Open with Ilana Glazer

• 0:00
  Welcome to It's Open with Ilana Glazer. It's me, Ilana Glazer.
• 0:04
  I am so excited about this conversation that I'm bringing to you today that I just came off of, just finished.
• 0:08
  I'm so proud, honestly, to be able to deliver this gift to you, which includes hope for our dear sweet United States of America.
• 0:20
  My guest today is Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan.
• 0:23
  She's the Lieutenant governor of Minnesota and she's on the front lines of everyday Americans keeping their neighbors safe from assaults by ice. And the federal government, Peggy Flanagan is the kind of elected official that gives me hope.
• 0:41
  She started her career in public service by organizing and fighting for affordable or free basic human rights for her local community.
• 0:50
  She served on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board, public schools board, yes, plural, and also served in the Minnesota House of Representatives state legislature in Minnesota.
• 1:01
  And now Peggy Flanagan since 2019 is the Lieutenant governor of Minnesota, but now she is running for US Senate.
• 1:10
  She is one of the highest ranking Native American women in US political history.
• 1:15
  She is also a mom, and this woman does not take corporate PAC money.
• 1:23
  I'm so excited.
• 1:24
  I can't wait for you to listen to and enjoy and learn from and be inspired by my guest today, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan.
• 1:38
  Hi. Hi. Thank you so much for joining.
• 1:40
  I am thrilled to have you here and to be in conversation with you today.
• 1:44
  Thanks so much for having me.
• 1:44
  I'm really happy to be here.
• 1:46
  Oh gosh. With all that is going on, the federal government's assault on Minnesota and using ice to do so. This scary, true, truly terrifying things we're hearing out of Minnesota.
• 2:02
  It's like, I'm sorry to say, but we're looking to you for guidance.
• 2:07
  And I know not sorry, but I mean I'm relieved because you have a playbook.
• 2:12
  You guys have been surviving it, and it's a relief to have your leadership.
• 2:18
  I appreciate that.
• 2:21
  I have never been more proud to be Minnesotan than I am right now.
• 2:25
  And just last night as I was attacking in my kiddo, she was having a hard time falling asleep and she said, mom, it feels so weird to go to school with everything that's going on.
• 2:42
  And she's like, it's kind of overwhelming. And I said, well, let's talk about that. I was like, I get it. I said, it feels hard to kind of do anything right now. And I said, you remember that Mr. Rogers saying that we got to look for the helpers when things are hard? And she said, yeah. I was like, well, let's think about all the helpers.
• 3:00
  So we talked about all the helpers that we knew, the helpers who were bringing groceries to folks, the helpers who were standing outside of schools, the helpers who were donating money, and we were sort of going through this big conversation and then we just said a prayer before she went to bed.
• 3:25
  And it is just this bizarre thing.
• 3:33
  Parenting in this moment, talking to a 13-year-old who knows what's going on, and also finding all these bright lights when things feel impossible and just moments of joy and resistance among all of the chaos and cruelty. That's the stuff we got to hold on to.
• 4:01
  And Minnesotans are giving us a lot of things that we can be Hopeful about.
• 4:06
  Even in the face of all of this.
• 4:08
  It's breathtaking. It's horrifying. And we're both moms.
• 4:13
  I have a four and a half year old, and I'm like, so no offense. I'm so grateful that I don't have to explain this to her yet, that I don't have to because it makes the parent confront the reality in a way that's like, fuck my kids in this world, in this state that's being attacked.
• 4:37
  What does it look like on the ground right now in Minnesota?
• 4:40
  So yesterday we went to church as we do.
• 4:46
  I'm Catholic and native, and so it's complicated, But we walked up to church and as there has been for the last several weeks, there were constitutional observers who are standing outside of our church.
• 5:01
  We go to church with a lot of folks of different statuses and they say, can you use a side door?
• 5:11
  Someone was just abducted a block away about five minutes ago.
• 5:17
  So we used the side door and then went through mass and at the end of mass they're like, all right, if folks can just make sure that you're walking out with somebody so we can get everybody to their cars.
• 5:33
  And this is just kind of what happens.
• 5:37
  And that's what it looks like on the ground.
• 5:40
  And we have figured out how to feed 300 families every week, your church And what it looks like on the ground. Just moms, a lot of moms who are deeply committed to mutual aid parents who are standing outside of daycares, schools, places of worship, and folks who are just showing up in every way possible.
• 6:19
  It also looked like on Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon, there was a native led memorial for Renee, good arville looking horse.
• 6:33
  It was a Lakota spiritual leader, came to town and did this beautiful ceremony for Renee's family in Powderhorn Park, hundreds of people who showed up, people who were singing together, folks across faith and nominations and walks of life, children sliding down the hill in the snow on signs that they had made beautiful puppets. And it really is just people meeting this immediate needs of their neighbors and also finding places for music and poetry and ceremony, which also feels like it's incredibly important.
• 7:28
  We're in this moment right now where it's humanity that is being attacked.
• 7:33
  And we've seen different scapegoats, I mean certainly throughout the history of this country, native Americans to black people to immigrants.
• 7:40
  Most recently the trans people as scapegoats is such a loud yell from this hateful side of the political spectrum.
• 7:54
  But now we're I think really seeing and connecting the dots that it's techno crats versus our humanity.
• 8:05
  And when you paint this picture about children sliding down a hill on signs they made honoring Renee Nicole Goode, who was executed by ice and a mother, it's so unfair. It's so unfair.
• 8:26
  This beautiful humanity would come out even if our basic needs were met.
• 8:31
  And it's a miracle that humans are miraculous.
• 8:35
  It is a miracle that our humanity shines like light even in these circumstances. But it's just so unfair.
• 8:45
  It's so cruel, it's so.
• 8:47
  Creepy, it's so disgusting and you can't explain it.
• 8:55
  I don't know how to explain it to my kid.
• 9:01
  I don't know how to wrap my head around it other than we have been here before.
• 9:10
  And so one of the things that I find comfort in is for so many reasons, I'm not supposed to be here.
• 9:23
  I'm not even supposed to exist as a Anishinaabe, as a native woman. I'm not even supposed to be here.
• 9:30
  But it was the resiliency and determination and grit and spirit of people who came before me, why I get to sit here and exist.
• 9:42
  And so I've been thinking a lot about resiliency, and resiliency is in our bones, and we think about all the people who have loved us into existence and why we are here that is so visceral and so real in this moment.
• 9:58
  And there's also this other piece of what choice do we have other than to fight and show up and call out the violence of our federal government.
• 10:13
  As you talked about, Renee, good.
• 10:16
  And I keep coming back to the images of her vehicle after she was executed and the stuffed animals that were falling out of the glove box and just how much blood was in that photo.
• 10:36
  And it's horrific, and we have to talk about it.
• 10:40
  And we have to talk about the fact that Alex Preti was killed by the government that he works for, killed by the very government that he worked for as a nurse in the va.
• 10:55
  We have to talk about that too.
• 10:55
  And so as people are like, oh, the numbers are being drawn down. And in so many ways, it's not actually about the numbers, it's about the tactics that are being used right in this moment.
• 11:14
  So the ice tactics are becoming more insidious and relatively quiet and manipulating like plain clothes tactics and pretending to be neighbors trying to bring kids home from school when in fact it's ice agents in normal clothes trying to kidnap children.
• 11:40
  And then following mutual aid people bringing mutual aid.
• 11:43
  Can you speak to these manipulative tactics that are not the image of Alex Pretti holding a phone about to be shot or the video of Renee good being killed in her car by scary masked agents? No.
• 11:56
  Now they're pretending to be normal people.
• 12:00
  So we have stories of ice agents going to the homes of immigrants in normal clothes with grocery bags to get people to open their doors.
• 12:17
  Pretending to be Minnesotans, who are actually organizing to feed families who are too afraid to leave their homes at all, right? I mean.
• 12:29
  Fuck.
• 12:32
  And then the Liam, Liam Kojo Ramos, who's a little guy in the bunny hat and the Spider-Man backpack who thank God someone got a photo of him because the power of that photo I think is what led people to respond, led to his release.
• 13:02
  And then the federal government trying to fast track their removal hearing and that there are other children, Chloe, who is two, who is detained and moved to Texas, who's now back home. Elizabeth, another child in the Columbia Heights District in Minnesota who was removed along with her mother, who now is either has been ordered to be brought back or is Braca Minnesota.
• 13:35
  That to me is the most chilling piece of all of this are the kids.
• 13:43
  And had we not had a photo of Liam, would he still be in detention with his father?
• 13:50
  And how many other children that we don't know about have been detained? And for me, this is reminiscent of the boarding school era for Native Americans.
• 14:04
  As kids we're taken from their families scooped up to kill the Indian, to save the man, and just how familiar that is, that tactic of taking children or separating them from their parents of the federal government and it's still happening in real time in front of us right now is horrific.
• 14:31
  The feeling that I think about all the time when we have these conversations about parents being separated from their kids or families, parent and child being detained is that feeling when you get your kiddo out of the bathtub and when you wrap them in the towel and you wrap your arms all the way around them and it is like one of the coziest embraces with your kid you'll ever have.
• 15:04
  I think about that and how there are these families and detention with these tinfoil Mylar blankets and that coziness that is completely absent from these monsters and that system.
• 15:24
  And it's hard to stay in that place for very long.
• 15:27
  It just makes you so angry and full of despair. But it's the reality.
• 15:32
  And so we have to talk about it.
• 15:33
  And I think that's also the difference that we've seen in Minnesota is that people are documenting what they are seeing.
• 15:40
  And almost 30,000 people in Minnesota have been trained to be constitutional observers or have gone through Know Your Rights training.
• 15:50
  That is one of the most powerful tools in our toolbox right now.
• 15:57
  Oh my God, I'm so amped. It's like when you paint the picture of true safety, it's so little. It's so little. There is actually, it's very simple to fulfill people's basic needs and basic human rights.
• 16:13
  The gymnastics that are done at a policy level, at a messaging to the public level, to brainwash and trick people into thinking that what's happening is okay.
• 16:24
  It takes so much gymnastics when organizing around basic needs and then letting whatever the wealthiest people be, the wealthiest people, it just would be so much simpler.
• 16:36
  This violence and cruelty, it is hard to make sense of. But when you talk about community, I guess that does help make sense of it.
• 16:48
  And when you brought up the boarding schools family separation by way of boarding schools with Native Americans being separated from their parents and put into this indoctrinating system.
• 17:04
  It.
• 17:04
  Makes me think about your upbringing.
• 17:04
  So you grew up with a single mom, and I am really curious about your connection to your native ancestry and routine rituals in your day-to-day. Growing up.
• 17:21
  My mom was a five foot tall, skinny white lady with blonde hair and blue eyes.
• 17:31
  And growing up folks were like, are you adopted? I was like, no, that's my mom.
• 17:40
  And she worked incredibly hard. She moved me to the community of St.
• 17:48
  Louis Park where I still live with my family when I was just a baby.
• 17:53
  And she used a section eight housing voucher to pay for the rent.
• 17:58
  We relied on Snap, which back in the day we called food stamps and I was that kid with a different colored lunch ticket who curate a box of commodity cheese under my arm, like a football.
• 18:11
  We relied on Medicaid or medical assistance as it's called in Minnesota. I was a kid with really bad asthma.
• 18:18
  And so there were times when I missed a lot of school and it felt like I was in the hospital more than I was out.
• 18:21
  So that was my healthcare and the childcare assistance program allowed my mom to go back to school.
• 18:30
  She got her certificate in phlebotomy.
• 18:33
  And so we always teased her that she had to be a vampire every year for Halloween.
• 18:38
  And when she graduated from St. Kate's, she walked across the stage and this beautiful bright blue cap and gown when I was seven, and it felt like I was walking across that stage. I remember it viscerally.
• 18:55
  And so here's this woman who just works so hard for me and sacrifice so much for me.
• 19:05
  And so I think about everything that is happening in this country, that I am here because of these very programs that are being attacked and dismantled, and I am not here in spite of them.
• 19:21
  I'm here because of those investments.
• 19:24
  So that piece of my mom was incredible and she did her very best.
• 19:29
  She knew that it was important that I was in relationship with my dad's side of the family, which is where my Anishinaabe Ojibwe roots come from.
• 19:44
  So made sure that my auntie in South Minneapolis and my of time with them, but it wasn't until I was about to graduate college that I reconnected with my dad and he was super fist in the air. He'd say, my girl, I want to burn down the system and you want to change it from the inside out.
• 20:11
  We need both.
• 20:11
  And right now we are in that moment that's all happening.
• 20:19
  And so my dad was not ready or healthy enough to be in my life until I was older, but I got the best version of him. And for that, I am grateful.
• 20:33
  So my Ojibwe name is gi, which means speaks in a loud and clear voice woman.
• 20:41
  And I am so grateful for my community.
• 20:45
  And I am a member of the White Earth Nation, which is the largest tribe in Minnesota, but also grew up in the urban native community.
• 20:54
  We've got an incredibly strong native community in Minneapolis and St.
• 20:59
  Paul, And it is the birthplace of the American Indian movement.
• 21:04
  So the organizing work that is happening on the ground in Minnesota right now, so much of that is happening in the native community.
• 21:14
  There's the indigenous protectors movement, which essentially started after the murder of George Floyd and has been a consistent presence now is ramping up again. And these folks are on the streets every day run out of powwow Grounds, which is a coffee shop in on Franklin Ave in South Minneapolis, appropriately titled.
• 21:48
  And so that is also part of that legacy.
• 21:52
  So my identity as an Anishinaabe Que is really important to me, but making sure that people know that urban native piece, which is strong and rugged and shows up for community in a really major way, that's also part of me and how I grew up.
• 22:15
  Wow.
• 22:18
  I started organizing and really doing advocacy work 10 years ago, and I'm 38, so I started at 28. And something that has not, the dots that haven't been connected, I think for mainstream Americans is how indigenous people, indigenous organizers and black organizers created human rights.
• 22:44
  The conservative side has demonized the idea of civil rights, but it's human rights.
• 22:49
  And as technology ramps up and the resources for technology are being, resources are being put into technology and data centers more than humanity, as you talk about indigenous people creating a protective system in Minneapolis since George Floyd's murder, we're all going to need this system of protection.
• 23:12
  We're all going to have to be protecting ourselves and our communities in this way. And I don't think there's been the dots connected yet to see that the people who are most marginalized in this country have created systems to protect themselves, but that protects everybody.
• 23:27
  That's right. That's right.
• 23:30
  And I think coming up, I wasn't like, oh, I'm going to be an organizer.
• 23:37
  It's just like there's a need in the community.
• 23:41
  People get together and they figure it out.
• 23:44
  And so where I think about the core of all of it is relationship building and building trust, and you don't need a strategic plan to figure it out. It's just what skills to focus have.
• 23:59
  What's your role in community?
• 24:04
  You step into the middle when you're needed, you step back out, somebody else steps in and you just meet needs.
• 24:13
  And you know what I'm also thinking about the strong indigenous presence as well as the urban native presence is that Minneapolis is a particularly progressive state, and I don't know how visible it is, how that connects to how the indigenous organizing legacy connects to the democracy and the democratic policy in the state.
• 24:41
  I don't know if this is a thing that is talked about and celebrated, and I'm just putting the pieces together now, but can you speak to Minnesota's particularly progressive policy? There's.
• 24:52
  This, I think the unofficial slogan for Minnesota, which comes from Senator Paul Wellstone, which is his famous quote.
• 25:01
  We all do better when we all do better.
• 25:04
  I really believe that is at the core of who we are as Minnesotans, even regardless of political party.
• 25:11
  I think if you see that your neighbor is in need, you step up and you figure it out.
• 25:19
  I can't tell you how many times we'll come home and the sidewalk's been shoveled because one of our neighbors is just like, oh, I'll go over and do that.
• 25:28
  Or just how people not in New York. That is not true in New York.
• 25:34
  It's a lot of, oh, I'm out here anyway, might as well.
• 25:39
  And that's just part of it are you move into the community and someone will bring you bars or hot dish.
• 25:42
  A hot dish is a casserole, but we call it hot dish in Minnesota.
• 25:49
  So much of that I think is foundational to who we are.
• 25:52
  And I would also say the way that we've been a welcoming place for immigrants and refugees, And that is part of our identity.
• 26:01
  So in 2023, after the 2022 elections, we had a trifecta of a democratically controlled house, senate and governor's office.
• 26:13
  And so I think it was pretty clear that this was the opportunity to deliver on a lot of the things that we told Minnesotans we were going to do.
• 26:23
  So breakfast and lunch for all kids in school. Wow, a nation leading child's tax credit.
• 26:34
  We passed the Minnesota Pro Act, which guaranteed access to abortion care for folks who needed it, historic investments in childcare and housing and education.
• 26:48
  All of those things I think were truly about the fact that so many of us had been organizing in partnership together for a long time because we'd had a trifecta the decade previous. And during that time, I co-chaired the campaign to raise the minimum wage in our state and index it to inflation, which was still That's.
• 27:13
  Amazing.
• 27:13
  Yeah, thanks.
• 27:14
  It remains one of the most important things I've ever done in my life.
• 27:18
  And.
• 27:19
  At that time, folks were like, oh gosh, I don't know.
• 27:21
  You're asking for too much because we just increase it to eight 50 and then we'll figure it out.
• 27:26
  And in the coalition we're like, absolutely not, because we know that the cost of living is going to keep going up and you want us to come back here in two years or four years or eight years.
• 27:40
  Why can't we just have families catch up and keep up?
• 27:42
  So we did and we fought really hard.
• 27:45
  So now every January since that time, we've had an increase in the minimum wage of Minnesota, which has been wonderful. That's.
• 27:53
  Amazing. And.
• 27:54
  If we hadn't done that right, it would still be eight 50 because people wouldn't be willing to fight that fight again, so many of us who were advocates during that time a decade later were decision makers or leading organizations.
• 28:12
  So when we had the ability to and had the right butts in the seats, we decided to run as hard and as fast as we could.
• 28:19
  That's incredible what people asked us to do, so we might as well deliver on the things we told people we were going to do.
• 28:26
  Yep. That's amazing. What had it been and what did you make it to?
• 28:30
  What is it now? So now it's over $11.
• 28:36
  At the time, I think it was $7 and something.
• 28:40
  Oh my God.
• 28:41
  They haven't increased the federal minimum wage in over 16 years.
• 28:44
  It's still $7 and 25 cents, which is outrageous.
• 28:47
  And inflation is, I mean, it's impossible.
• 28:47
  Exactly. It's fully impossible.
• 28:50
  That's.
• 28:50
  Exactly right. So I mean, those I think have a little bit more Minnesota and Washington we'd probably do better, but that again, we've got faith communities, labor organizations, nonprofits, elected leaders, folks who are, we have a strong inside outside game, I think.
• 29:15
  What.
• 29:15
  Do you mean by that?
• 29:16
  And so what does that mean?
• 29:17
  Relationships with people who are serving an office who come from movement work.
• 29:26
  And so that I think, again, is just being able to stay in coalition, build that power to get things done.
• 29:33
  And now those same groups are the ones who are activated right now who are pushing back against these federal agents that are in our state.
• 29:46
  All of it is related and having a strong infrastructure, organizing infrastructure that's been invested in over years and years and years.
• 29:56
  That's one of the reasons why Minnesota is able to respond the way that we are right now.
• 30:01
  Right. You've been organizing as a community, the picture you're painting, it really feels like the state is particularly engaged.
• 30:09
  And this is also your Democratic party in Minnesota is called the Democratic Farmer's Labor.
• 30:15
  Union.
• 30:15
  Party.
• 30:16
  It's the Democratic Farmer Labor Party.
• 30:18
  So you have a particularly workers focused state government.
• 30:26
  For doing it, right? Yeah. And we are uniquely called that in this country.
• 30:33
  It was the formation of several parties coming together to form the DFL.
• 30:41
  Wow. So you're a lieutenant governor now, and you've been since 2019 and you are now running for US Senate.
• 30:50
  Yeah.
• 30:51
  What do you think as somebody who's been lieutenant governor for six years of their state can bring to a first time senate seat that most senators can't?
• 31:03
  Well, I would say the thing that I'm bringing is the entirety of my experience being Lieutenant Governor has been absolutely incredible.
• 31:16
  And the policy wins that we've had have been tremendous in particular around paid family and medical leave, school lunches for kids.
• 31:29
  All those things have been really important. But for me, my occupation might change, but my vocation is always the same.
• 31:39
  And that's to make sure that people are seen, heard, valued, protected, and believed. So if that's as the executive director if that's serving in the legislature, if that's being a school board member or my kiddo's mom, I'm bringing all of that into this space.
• 31:59
  And I'd also say as a kid who grew up on the margins, we don't have enough people who are serving in the it's like to stretch 20 bucks to last the rest of the month.
• 32:12
  I think if we did, we want to pass this big ugly bill because people would know better so they'd do better. And that's what I'm trying to do.
• 32:24
  I want to make sure that people can afford the lives they want to live.
• 32:28
  And so increasing the minimum wage at the federal level to at least $17 and indexing it to inflation, Medicare for all universal childcare, all these things that people have been telling us that they need for a really long time.
• 32:47
  And I think one of the reasons we find ourselves here in this situation with Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress who seem to be driven only by cruelty and greed is that Democrats have been nibbling around the edges for far too long or fighting from a defensive crouch or saying like, what fight do we think we can win?
• 33:10
  Instead of what do people actually need us to fight for? And that wellstone quote, we all do better and we all do better. It is a good one, but my favorite quote from Senator Westone is sometimes you got to pick a fight to win one, and it is time for us to pick some fights.
• 33:32
  I have made the commitment to not take a dime of corporate PAC money because that is also why we are in the situation we are in because billionaires and corporations, they have a lot of representation in Washington.
• 33:45
  It's like regular folks who need it, and it means I got to hustle a little bit more, but it also means that I can sleep at night and maintain my own integrity.
• 33:55
  So it's the little things.
• 33:57
  Truly, and also you can see in these people's faces that they're going insane because they know they're in three different places and not even one person. Really, being able to sleep at night is what helps you wake up and look your constituents in the eye and look Americans in the eye and dream better for this country.
• 34:16
  So you don't take a dime of corporate PAC money and as you're painting this picture of billionaires and government, it's on both sides, a hundred of the eye.
• 34:29
  It's almost been like a PR campaign, the Democrats where it's like this sort of neoliberal or white liberal banner with nothing of the policy backing it up, and the idea of people want progressive fighters now.
• 34:45
  And.
• 34:46
  I feel like the general public is able to spot a corporate institutional Democrat from a progressive fighter. It's pretty easy.
• 34:57
  It's people who don't take corporate PAC money and who are talking about kitchen table issues that we all can relate to the price of groceries, the price of electrical bills. When, how do you feel as such a high level democratic politician within the system that institutionalized corporate democratic system, how does that feel and how do you think it's going to feel if and when you win your Senate seat?
• 35:26
  Well, it's super frustrating. I think as someone who has been organizing my entire career to watch this creep within my own party is something, and I think I've got a primary in Minnesota, and so I think the choice that is facing Minnesotans is the same choice that is facing the Democratic party overall, which is again, the choice between institutional and corporate Democrats or a progressive fighter. I'm really clear that as you said, people want fighters and it is this idea that somehow politicians are just licking their finger and figuring out which way the wind is blowing instead of being really clear, what do you actually stand for and who are you in relationship with?
• 36:28
  Because that piece, we've done over 150 events all across the state of Minnesota. Oh my God, which is the best part of my job is my daughter says she's like, my mom's job is to go on field trips and help people, which I think is pretty accurate if I'm doing it right, that rules, and so you have to be in relationship with people in order to represent them, and I think the way that we campaign is also an example of how we're going to govern. So that also matters.
• 37:00
  I want to be beholden to Minnesotans and to not to these big corporations, and we should do everything we can to say that these seats shouldn't go to the highest bidder because I think the best way to get rid of Citizens United and to end Citizens United is to demonstrate that you can be progressive champion and you can reject corporate PAC money and still win. And I think the only way that we could do that is by actually doing it. You can't just say like, oh, this is just the way things are.
• 37:36
  That's how I got to run, which is I think what my opponent would say, we deserve better and you got to be a good organizer.
• 37:45
  You got to do this work on the ground, and so far we're really seeing the benefits of that up and want to be part of our team.
• 37:55
  It's exciting and I'm humbled by it, but we also need leaders who need to be really clear.
• 38:02
  This campaign isn't just about 2026.
• 38:05
  It's about what kind of infrastructure are we then building for 2028 and 2030 and 2032.
• 38:12
  Which.
• 38:12
  We don't think enough about as Democrats, I think we do as progressives, but I don't think we think about it as Democrats.
• 38:20
  I really feel like Democrats for a long time.
• 38:23
  I didn't see it until I started getting into this work, and it's become increasingly clear that they too are doing insider trading.
• 38:30
  They're.
• 38:31
  Not worried about the infrastructure for income, family's income, hourly wage. They're not worried about groceries.
• 38:39
  So many people in the system have been invested in their personal profit and it's almost like turning the lights on when you hear people like you talking about these just graspable day-to-day things we need to live and human rights, affordability is human rights.
• 39:00
  It's.
• 39:01
  The ability to afford your basic needs. Beyond that, again, I don't know these people who are so greedy that they're massively violent.
• 39:10
  It's like you would profit anyway, right? You'd be the rich people anyway.
• 39:15
  When you say, I don't know how to explain this to my daughter because I don't understand this, we adults don't understand this twisted psychotic level of greed, this violent level of greed. It's crazy.
• 39:27
  I mean, and ice right now watching the federal government try to buy up all these warehouses all across the country to detain more immigrants, what is that about?
• 39:42
  That's about money. It's about the bottom line.
• 39:45
  It's about somebody benefiting from it being this way, and that is, again, the through line, the violence in our communities, the execution of two Minnesotans, the absolute trauma that our children are experiencing, the fact that kids are now going to have an ACE score, an adverse childhood experience score because federal agents are in our state.
• 40:15
  All of that has to do with money and with greed, and we have to name that as well.
• 40:23
  Right?
• 40:23
  It is technocrats who are directly profiting from ice companies, private prisons, and the data.
• 40:31
  That's what it is.
• 40:34
  It's so important to name that that is what this is all about, and it is so uncreative.
• 40:38
  There's plenty of ways to go out and make money and go be in finance.
• 40:42
  There's plenty of uncreative stupid ways to go out and make money too.
• 40:48
  It's shocking. It's shocking. I have to say the picture of you in my mind as a kid and with food stamps and the literal cheese, when you said held it like a football, that is so cute.
• 41:03
  All of these reasons, all of these versions of you one of the already highest ranking Native American women in political history running for Senate.
• 41:12
  It's like you're really made for this moment and being called upon, and I want to talk about quickly your endorsements.
• 41:21
  Tina Smith, who is leaving her Senate seat endorsed you.
• 41:25
  She did, and I am so honored to have her endorsement.
• 41:32
  I have been friends with Tina for a very long time and looked up to her.
• 41:37
  She made that lieutenant governor to Senate Pathway herself, but she's just been incredible, and so I hope to be able to continue to be a progressive fighter and to walk in her footsteps.
• 41:54
  As well. Who else has endorsed.
• 41:55
  You?
• 41:56
  We have endorsements from a group of senators calling themselves a fight club.
• 42:00
  And.
• 42:00
  The number one rule of Fight club is not to talk about it, but whatever we're going to talk about it. Senators Murphy, Merkley Van Holland, Heinrich Warren and Sanders, and so these are folks that I admire who are on the front lines of pushing back against the Democratic party establishments who are like, we want her on our team, which is pretty great. National Nurses United, hell.
• 42:26
  Yeah.
• 42:27
  SEIU. What's.
• 42:29
  That?
• 42:30
  Service Employees International Union copy.
• 42:32
  That.
• 42:33
  Have endorsed us. United Farm and Commercial Workers, UFCW have endorsed us.
• 42:37
  Indivisible just endorsed us, which is super exciting, incredible, and so all these folks who are doing the work, and for my little eighties kid Heart, Jane Fonda, Jane Fonda Pack just endorsed us, and so I think I got more text messages from friends who were like, Jane Fonda endorsed you. I'm in. I'm like, great. Hell.
• 43:05
  Yeah.
• 43:05
  It took.
• 43:06
  I'm not so sure I'm your childhood friend. I'm not so sure, but now that Jane Pond is in, we're in Baby. Okay, so I'm working with a group of ladies, moms and not moms around a campaign called Moms and Neighbors for Safe and Fair, US Midterm Elections 2026.
• 43:28
  It's a temporary campaign just for this year because when I look at what's happening in Minnesota, ice assaulting the state, executing people, kidnapping children, and then having their tactics become more manipulative, I'm thinking about the midterms because we know what would happen if we had safe and Fair elections this midterms November.
• 43:49
  It's.
• 43:49
  A sweep.
• 43:50
  That's right.
• 43:51
  And the call to action is to get moms to volunteer at the polls, but I hear you talking about also being constitutional observers.
• 43:59
  Can you speak to moms on the ground in Minnesota, leading organizing.
• 44:05
  I mean, that's where it's at.
• 44:08
  I've seen so many moms get activated in a way that I've never experienced before.
• 44:17
  There's a role and there's work for everybody.
• 44:21
  Moms are trusted messengers, and I think sometimes maybe we're like, oh, I don't know enough.
• 44:28
  I don't have all the, you're enough.
• 44:30
  If people talk about as a mom, why voting is important to me, why I'm going to turn out why these are the candidates that I'm going to vote for, that goes a really long way, so moms are really powerful.
• 44:42
  I mean all the time, but especially right now.
• 44:48
  You are such a powerful mom. Oh my gosh, your daughter must be so proud of you and so are we. Thank you so, so much for talking to me today, but for your leadership, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan, we are so grateful for you and we're going to be watching and following your lead all year.
• 45:05
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 45:09
  Wow. I literally, we wrapped cameras.
• 45:12
  I thanked Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and cried.
• 45:15
  I just was crying because things are so scary right now and to see and feel her energy about how ice is totally traumatizing and terrorizing to the point of murder Minnesotans, and yet she's here organizing and actually is running for senate.
• 45:33
  We could have her in Senate next year, a senator who doesn't take corporate PAC money, by the way, she appropriately judged the energy. It was not the time for her to say this, but I'm going to say it. Her opponent, who I don't even need to name, voted for the Lake and Riley Act, which strips immigrants of their due process, including children, voted to praise ice in June and is standing by it and not only takes corporate PAC money.
• 46:04
  One of those corporate PACS is apac.
• 46:08
  Peggy Flanagan is the lieutenant governor of Minnesota and she's running for US Senate and doesn't take a dime of corporate PAC money. That's a progressive fighter that is not an institutionalized corporate de Oh, and we are just lucky.
• 46:25
  We are so fortunate Americans right now to have her in this race and her experience on the ground with the urban native community and her tribe to have all that experience. That was really, man, that gave me some hope. We had so much more to cover, but her time was tight, but she and I, on our pre-interview call, I just wanted to mention this thing.
• 46:48
  She was saying the parallels of having ice in your state between having ice in your state and their terror with surviving domestic abuse.
• 46:58
  We were just talking about those parallels and the gaslighting that comes with it and it all makes sense and connecting it to the Epstein files.
• 47:06
  It's like, this is America. This is what we are living in right now, but there's a way out, and that way out is through knowing your neighbors like Lieutenant Governor Flanagan said, and starting to just jump in wherever is needed. It doesn't have to be some big thing. It's like organizing.
• 47:24
  It's just step the fuck in and we can make our way out.
• 47:29
  That gave me hope. Oh my goodness.
• 47:29
  Thank you, Lieutenant Governor. Okay.
• 47:34
  That's a fatter outro than I usually do.
• 47:36
  I want to thank all the people who help me make this show. I want to thank my creative producers, Annika Carlson, David Rooklin, Madeline Kim, Glennis Meaghar for prepping me here, Kelsie, Kiley and Allie Owen, thank you for the nudge.
• 47:52
  I even told the Lieutenant Governor, I was like, she nudged me twice.
• 47:55
  Thank you so much. I am so honored to gotten to interview her, and that was because of you. Thank you, Allie Owen, I want to thank Raymo Ventura for all the sick graphics and opening musical sting and the graphics. It's just so good. The branding, Tovah Liebowitz who edits this show and makes it with us, and he's just brilliant. I want to thank the people who made this episode look and sound so good. Kevin Deming, Lexa Krebs, Nicole Maupin, and thank you to the band Don Hur for making this outro music.
• 48:27
  This has been a Starrpix production.
• 48:27
  Don't you forget it. Starrpix bitch.
• 48:33
  Have a good day. Get some good sleeve. Drink your water.
• 48:35
  We're talking about Bad Bunny. Get moisturized, like Bad Bunny. Oof.
• 48:39
  Watch that halftime show again. Get horn knee.
• 48:42
  The intersection of Horniness and wholesomeness is Bad Enjoy that. Get off to it, literally or figuratively.
• 48:51
  Love it. Love you. God bless.