What’s next after Minnesota’s legislative ‘miracle’

In June, Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, along with other state officials, met with senior White House officials in Washington, D.C. to celebrate Minnesota’s recent legislative victories, including paid family and medical leave. The paid family and medical leave program will provide all Minnesotans with partial wage replacement for medical leave, bonding, or caring for a family member.

The paid family and medical leave was among nearly 80 “long overdue” bills that were passed in 2023, by the Minnesota legislature, and only the eighth time in 40 years that a special session wasn’t needed to pass the state budget. Many credit that to the fact that the DFL controls the governor’s office, the House, and the Senate.

Before their trip to D.C., Lt. Governor Flanagan spoke with the MSR about this year’s legislative session. “First of all, this session was incredible,” declared the second-term lieutenant governor. 

A former state legislator (2015-19), former Minneapolis school board member (2005-09), and long-time Native American activist and community organizer, Flanagan has been an advocate for working-class families and Indigenous communities.

“As someone who’s been doing this work, there’s a really important story to be told about how much work has been done over the last decade to make this happen,” said the St. Louis Park native. She called the 2023 legislative session, the passing of the baton from organizer to organizer, and legislature to legislature.

As an example, she offered Minnesota’s passing of the CROWN Act, which prohibits hair-based discrimination—similar to laws passed in 14 other states. Flanagan credits last year’s election of three Black women—Zaynab Mohammad, Claire Oumou Verbeten, Erin Maye Quade—to the Minnesota Senate in helping pass the law. 

Other examples include the establishment of the first Office of Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls along with a $1.24 annual budget to assist with cases, and the Juneteenth state holiday.

“We have a legislature that looks more and more like Minnesota,” said Flanagan, of the legislative diversity in St. Paul. “So many of us have been working on this together,” she said of legislative bills that restored voting rights for former felons, suspended gun permits for people experiencing a mental health crisis, abortion rights protections, a “trans refuge” law that protects transgender children who travel to Minnesota for medical care, and other bills that some are collectively calling the ‘Minnesota Miracle 2.0’ for its progressiveness. 

Nearly a month after the 2023 legislative session concluded, and with new laws now in place, the lieutenant governor emphasized that after the victory lap, much work is still needed. “We absolutely have got to get it right,” especially for communities of color, she noted. “There is a tremendous amount of work that our state agencies have to do. In some cases, they have to hire a lot of new staff to implement the things that we just passed.

“We also have to make sure that we are communicating with community so they know what’s coming. They have to know how to access some of these resources. It’s a big task.

“We can now take the work that we’re doing in Minnesota and to continue to make progress,” said Flanagan. “I think so much of what we got done this session has been long overdue, and now we need to think about how do we maintain those wins but also look forward to the future.”